The Producer Price Inflation which measures the ex-factory prices of goods and services in the country inched up to 9.6 per cent in September 2020.
Year-on-year, this means that between September 2019 and September 2020, the PPI increased by 9.6 percent.
This rate represents a 0.6 percentage point increase in producer inflation relative to the rate of 9.0 percent recorded in August 2020.
This is according to a newsletter released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday October 21, 2020.
Giving a further breakdown, the GSS noted that the producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector decreased by 6.1 percentage points over the August 2020 rate of 37.9 percent to record 31.8 percent in September 2020.
“The producer inflation for Manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry, increased by 1.9 percentage points to record 5.9 percent. The utility sub-sector recorded the same inflation rate of 5.8 percent as the rate for August 2020”.
The GSS explained that “the PPI for Ghana, reports the producer price indices with reference to September 2006, the base period”.
According to the office in charge of national statistics, “this release shows the annual (year-on-year) and monthly producer inflation rates for all industry and three major subsectors of industry (Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing, and Utilities) for the last twelve months”.
The Service however, cautioned that “the figures for September 2020 are provisional and are subject to revision when additional data become available. All other indicators are final”.
Trends in PPI
The GSS provided a trend analyses for the PPI over a twelve-month period. According to the Service, “in September 2019, the producer price inflation rate for all industry was 9.1 percent. The rate declined to 8.9 percent in October 2019.
“The rate increased consistently to 14.5 percent in January 2020 but declined to 6.8 percent in March 2020. After that, the rate increased continuously to record 9.5 percent in June 2020 but declined to 9.0 percent in August 2020. The rate increased to record 9.6 percent in September 2020”.
Manufacturing Sector
The GSS stated that “during September 2020, seven out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 5.9 percent.
“Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers recorded the highest inflation rate of 16.6 percent, while the Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products, and nuclear fuel recorded the least inflation rate of -0.3 percent”.
Petroleum Price Index
“The producer inflation rate in the petroleum subsector was -2.7 percent in September 2019. The rate declined to record -5.7 percent in October 2019.
“After that, the rate increased consistently to record 20.6 percent in January 2020 but declined continuously to record -15.4 percent in May 2020. However, the rate increased to -4.5 percent in June 2020 but declined marginally again to -5.4 percent in August 2020. The rate increased to record -0.3 percent in September 2020” .
