The annual Producer Price Inflation (PPI) rose to 16.3 per cent in March from 16.1 per cent in February, Acting Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko said in Accra on Wednesday.

This means that the ex-factory prices of goods for all industry increased on average by 16.3 per cent in March 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.

“Based on the revised figures for February 2012, the year–on-year producer inflation rate for March 2012 was 0.2 percentage point higher than that of February 2012,” Dr Nyarko said.

The monthly change rate is 1.1 per cent, meaning that compared to February 2012, the PPI increased by 1.1 per cent in March 2012.

Dr Nyarko said the producer inflation rate in mining and quarrying sub-sector dropped by 7.8 percentage points to 31.5 per cent relative to the rate recorded in February 2012 (39.3 per cent) mainly on account of a decrease in gold prices on the world market.

The manufacturing rate for March 2012 stood at 15.6 per cent, slightly higher than that for February 2012 by 1.4 percentage points.

Dr Nyarko said the slight increase in the manufacturing sector could be attributed to the depreciation of the cedi to the dollar, thereby increasing the cost of imported inputs in the production process.

The rate for utilities for February 2012 was virtually unchanged, Dr Nyarko said.

The highest monthly change of 1.9 per cent was recorded in the manufacturing subsector, followed by mining and quarrying (-1.0 per cent).

The rate for utilities remained unchanged.**