Business News of Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Source: thebftonline.com

Producer Price Inflation rate for Dec. dips to 4.4%

The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation of -0.1 per cent The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation of -0.1 per cent

The Producer Price Inflation for December 2018 was 4.4 per cent, representing a 2.1 per cent decrease in the producer inflation of 6.5 per cent recorded in November 2018.

The month-on-month change in producer price index between November 2018 and December 2018 was -1.2 per cent, David Kombat – Head of Publicity and Education, Ghana Statistical Service, announced this on Wednesday in Accra at a press briefing.

He said the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 8.5 per cent, followed by the manufacturing sub-sector with 4.5 per cent.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation of -0.1 per cent.

With respect to the monthly changes, Mr Kombat said the mining and quarrying sector recorded the highest inflation rate of 2.9 per cent, followed by the Utilities sub-sector with 0.0 per cent.

The Manufacturing sub-sector recorded the lowest inflation rate of -2.4 per cent.

Touching on trends for the rate, Kombat said in December 2018 the producer price inflation rate for all industry was 8.7 per cent.

The rate decreased consistently to record 3.7 per cent in March 2018 and subsequently increased to 8.2 per cent in July 2018 but decreased to 7.0 per cent in August 2018.

The rate further decreased to 5.8 per cent in September 2018, and in October 2018 the rate increased to 7.2 per cent but declined to 6.5 per cent in November 2018.