The producer price Index (PPI) has dropped from 6 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, largely on the back of a stable local currency.

PPI measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of goods and services.

Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh, cited the stability of the cedi as the main reason for the drop.

“One reason why we see the decreases cut across all sub-sectors is the stability of the cedi; and this affected the products that are imported and exported, causing the index to drop from 6 to 4.8 percent,” he said.

Compared to the same time last year, the PPI was 11.2 percent, indicating a significant improvement over the one year period.

All sub-sectors—mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and utilities—recorded decreases from last month’s figures.

The mining and quarrying subsector decreased by 2.6 percentage points over the March 2017 rate of 20.8 percent to record 18.2 percent in April 2017.

The producer inflation for the manufacturing sub-sector, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, decreased by 1.2 percentage points to record 2.9 percent.

The utilities sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 1.2 percent in April 2017 indicating a decrease of 0.3 percentage point over the March 2017 rate.

The producer inflation rate for the petroleum sub-sector also saw a decline from 5.3 to -1.2 percent.

With respect to the monthly changes, the utilities sub-sector recorded the highest rate of -0.3 percent, followed by the manufacturing sub-sector with -1 percent. The mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded the lowest rate of -3.4 percent.