The year-on-year inflation from the Producer Price Index (PPI) for all industry rose to 6.0 per cent in March 2017, from the 5.4 per cent recorded in February, citing higher petroleum and gold prices.

The rate shows a 0.6 percentage point increase relative to the rate recorded in February 2017.

The figure is down sharply from late 2014, when it stood at more than 48 percent.

“The month-on-month change in the producer price index between February 2017 and March 2017 was 1.4 per cent,” Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician, said at a press conference, on Wednesday.

Mr Wadieh explained that the rise in the rate was mainly due to higher petroleum and gold prices.

The producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector increased by 1.1 percentage points - from 19.7 percent in February. to 20.8 percent in March.

The Manufacturing sub-sector, which accounts for two-thirds of total industry, saw producer inflation up 0.5 percentage points to 4.0 per cent.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded a year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 1.5 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the February rate.

The producer inflation rate in the petroleum sub-sector jumped to 5.3 percent in March from 0.4 per cent in February.