The country’s producer price inflation (PPI) dropped to 9.7 per cent year-on-year in September from 11.1 per cent in August, partly influenced by lower gold prices, according to the Ghana Statistics Service (GSS).

This means that September inflation decreased by 1.4 percentage points over the August rate.

Deputy Government Statistician Baah Wadieh said at a news briefing in Accra yesterday that there was marginal easing in the export prices of gold in September, “helped by a base drift effect compared to the same period last year and that … drove down the index for all industry.”

The PPI measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services. The PPI for Ghana reports the producer price indices with reference to September 2006, the base period.

Giving the highlights, the Deputy Government Statistician said year-on-year producer inflation for the utilities sub-sector stood at 38.2 per cent, from 36.0 per cent.

“However, the mining and quarrying sub-sector stood at 22.2 per cent in September, from 28.4 per cent the month before,” Mr. Wadieh said.

According to the GSS, the manufacturing sub-sector was at 1.3 per cent in September, from 2.5 per cent in August.

The monthly change rate for September was 0.8 per cent, the GSS said.

PPI is a major component of consumer inflation, which has consistently remained above the government target.

Ghana, a commodity exporter, signed a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund in April 2015 aimed at restoring fiscal balance.

The country is a major commodity exporter of oil, gold, cocoa, timber, among others.