The Producer Price Inflation (PPI) for March 2020 has increased to 6.8 percent, new data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated.
This rate represents a 3.7 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in February 2020 which was 10.5 percent.
This rate also indicates that between March 2019 and March 2020 (year-on-year), the PPI increased by 6.8 percent.
The Producer Price Inflation measures the average change over time in the prices quoted by domestic producers at the factory gate.
In a statement issued by the GSS, a breakdown of the figure shows that the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 23.7 percent, followed by the utility sub-sector with 12.2 percent.
However, the Manufacturing sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 2.1 percent.
“During March 2020, ten out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 2.1 percent. Manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded the highest inflation rate of 24.7 percent, while the Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded a deflation rate of -9.6 percent,” the statement explained.
Also, the producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector decreased by 2.4 percentage points over the February 2020 rate of 26.1 percent to record 23.7 percent in March 2020.
The utility sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 12.2 percent for March 2020 indicating a decrease of 0.1 percentage point over the February 2020 rate of 12.3 percent
With respect to the monthly changes, the utility sub-sector recorded no inflation rate, followed by mining and quarrying sub-sector with -0.3 percent. The Manufacturing sub-sector recorded the lowest rate of -3.0 percent.
On the Petroleum Price Index, new data reveals that the producer inflation rate in the petroleum sub-sector was 13.0 percent in March 2019.
In April 2019, the rate increased to record 17.2 percent but declined to 1.2 percent in June 2019. However, it increased to 3.1 percent in August 2019 but declined again to -5.7 percent in October 2019.
Thereafter the rate increased consistently to record 20.6 percent in January 2020, but declined consistently to record -9.6 percent in March 2020.