Producer Price inflation records 8.9% in October 2019

The Producer Price Inflation reached 8.9 percent in October 2019.

The PPI measures the average change in the prices received by domestic producers for their products.

The 8.9 percent recorded in October 2019 is 0.2 percentage points lower compared to the 9.1 percent recorded in September 2019.

Data released by the Ghana Statistical Service also shows that the mining and quarrying sub-sectors recorded the highest inflation of 34.4 percent, followed by the utilities sub-sector with 12.6 percent.

The Manufacturing sub-sector recorded the least inflation of 3.1 percent.

The Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat, explained that developments on the international market influenced the inflation rate for the mining and quarrying sectors.

“The world market prices can influence the price of gold; if the price of gold increases on the world market, producers equally adjust their prices irrespective of whether the cost of inputs has increased or not,” he said.

On the impact of the rise in prices of utility on manufacturing, Mr. Kombat gave this explanation.

“For utilities, a lot of its pricing is dependent on the government’s policy whether prices should go up or not. It is not just one item that affects the pricing of goods. So even though manufacturers rely on utility in the line of work, there are other things that influence their decision to increase prices or not,” he said.

Meanwhile inflation for the petroleum sub-sector recorded -5.7 percent for October 2019

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