ACCRA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Producer Price Index (PPI) in Ghana increased 2.3 percentage points to record a 5.4 percent inflation year-on-year during the month of February 2017, relative to the 3.2 percent recorded in the previous month, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced here on Wednesday.
The PPI measures the rate of increase over time in prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services (ex-factory prices of goods and services).
The Monthly Change Rate for the month under review was 2.2 percent, relative to the 2.1 percent for January 2017.
Acting Government Statistician Baah Wadieh said that the increase in the main PPI to 551.3 in February 2017 from the January 2017 level of 539.3 was the result of an increase in the inflation of all three industry sectors of manufacturing, mining and quarrying as well as utilities.
Manufacturing, the largest industry sector group, rose 1.1 percentage points to 3.5 percent in February, compared with the 2.4 percent recorded for the previous month, while mining and quarrying rose 1.1 percentage points to 19.7 percent during the month under review, relative to the 18.6 percent recorded during January 2017.
"The utilities sector had the biggest jump, recording an 8.1 percentage points increase to record a year-on-year inflation rate of 1.3 percent, compared with the -6.8 percent inflation in January 2017," Wadieh disclosed.
"The increase in the inflation rate for the manufacturing sector was the result of the rise in inflation for the manufacture of petroleum products, while the increased inflation for the mining and quarrying sector was due to the rise in the price of gold on the world market," Wadieh added. Enditem
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