August PPI drop to 14.72%

By Fred Sarpong

Figures available from Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicate that ex-factory price of goods measure by the Producer Price Index (PPI) for August 2009 dropped by 1.41% to 14.72% from the July figure of 16.13%.
This implies that the ex-factory prices for all industry, which include manufacturing, mining and quarrying and utilities sub-sectors were on average l4.72% lower in August 2009 than they were in August 2008.
The rates of producer price inflation for these sub-sectors were mining and quarrying, 50.07%; manufacturing, 10.77%; and utilities, 1.49%.
The rate of producer price inflation in August 2009 increase for mining and quarrying by 8.42 percentage points, while manufacturing and utilities went down by 3.6 and 0.29 percentage points respectively than that of July 2009.
The monthly change in the all industry for August PPI was 0.71%. The corresponding changes for the major sub-sectors were: mining and quarrying, 0.51%; manufacturing, 0.84%; and utilities, -0.05%.
In the manufacturing sector, there was an appreciable inflation rates in the manufacture of tanning and dressing of leather (56.19%) sub-groups, while manufacture of cokes, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded a negative inflation rate of 7.17%.
The all industry year-on-year inflation had been relatively stable for the first five months of 2009, averaging 13.40%. There was however an upsurge in the rate in June, recording 17.94%, the highest for the year before reducing to 14.72% in August 2009.
Mining and quarrying rate sub-sector has exhibited the highest inflation rate since January 2009, followed by manufacturing and utilities sub-sectors.