Business News of Thursday, 26 May 2016
Source: citifmonline.com
Philomena Nyarko
The Producer Price Inflation (PPI) continues to decline as the PPI rate for April decreased from the 14.3 percent recorded in March to 13.2 percent.
The year-on-year monthly change rate for April 2016 is 1.7 percent. This represents a 1.1 percentage point decrease in the PPI rate recorded in April 2016, relative to what was recorded in March 2016.
Based on figures from the Ghana Statistical Service, the monthly change rate for the producer price index for the mining and quarry sub sector was negative 0.2 percent, the lowest inflation rate in the month of April.
The manufacturing sub sector recorded the highest inflation of 2.8 percent while that of the utilities sub sector remained unchanged at negative 0.1 percent. The Producer Price Index measures the average change overtime in prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.
The Deputy Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service, Baah Wadieh, attributed the decrease in the PPI to the decline in the utility and manufacturing sub sectors.
“Decreases in sectors like manufacturing and utility have all contributed largely to the fall in the producer price inflation. The year-on-year inflation from the producer’s perspective for all industry was 13.2 percent in April 2016.
The rate is one percentage point lower than the rate recorded in March 2016. The monthly change rate for April was 1.7 percent. Mr. Baah Wadieh however indicated that the improvement in the power sector is likely to lead to a further decrease in the producer price inflation in subsequent months.
“The utilities sub sector recorded the highest year on year producer price inflation of 37.1 percent.
We hope to see some more decreases with the current happenings with the power sector in the country.” The utilities sub sector recorded the highest year on year producer price inflation rate of 37.1 percent, followed by the manufacturing sector with 12.0 percent.
Meanwhile the mining sector recorded the lowest year on year inflation rate of negative 0.7 percent. The PPI rate of 13.2 % in April is the third time the rate has declined from 16.9 percent recorded in January this year.