October PPI increased slightly to 9.8%

The Producer Price Index (PPI) numbers released by the Ghana statistical Service (GSS) today, revealed a marginal upward adjustment in the rates between September 2016 to that of October 2016.

The month of October according to the GSS recorded provisional figures of 9.8 percent from the 9.7 percent recorded in September 2016.

The monthly change rate was negative 0.4 percent.

Speaking to journalists in Accra, the Deputy Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Services, Baah Wadieh attributed the slight increase in the PPI to the hikes in the petroleum products and also chemical and chemical products.

“The slight increase we are seeing is as result of the manufacturing sub - sector which had seen the petroleum products hikes in the last pricing window and also chemical and chemical products.”

“Also with respect to the changes, the manufacturing sub – sector recorded the highest rate of 0.9 percent while the mining and quarry sub sector recorded the lowest rate of negative 3.9 percent.

Even though the Utilities sub – sector in the month of October saw no change, it recorded the highest year on year producer price inflation rate of 38.2 percent, followed by the mining and quarry sector with 14.7 percent.

Manufacturing sector recorded the lowest year – on – year inflation rate of 3.0 percent.

Manufacturing sub-sector

During the month of October 2016, ten out of the sixteen major groups in the sector recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 3.0 percent.

According to him, the manufacturing of woods and products of wood and cork recorded the highest inflation rate of 49.2 percent while manufacturing of coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded the lowest producer price inflation rate of negative 7.4 percent.