Producer Price Inflation (PPI) rate, a measure of the ex-factory prices of goods and services in the country, rose to 21.4 percent in February 2022 on a year-on-year basis. This rate represents a 4.6 percentage point increase in producer inflation relative to the rate of 16.8 percent recorded in January 2022.
The revised producer price index of 873.2 for January 2022 was lower than the provisional index of 907.1 recorded in February 2022. This resulted in a month-on-month change in producer price index between January 2022 and February 2022 of 3.9 percent. The rate is lower than the 5.1 percent recorded between December 2021 and January 2022.
PPI for the various sub-sectors
Notably, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) provided information on inflation rates for all industry and its three major sub-sectors for the last twelve months. The major sub-sectors include Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing and Utilities.
The producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector increased by 11.6 percentage points over the January 2022 rate of 2.2 percent to record 13.8 percent in February 2022. The utility sub-sector recorded 0.5 percent inflation rate in February 2022.
The producer inflation for the Manufacturing sub-sector, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry, increased by 4.0 percentage points to record 28.8 percent in February 2022. In February 2022, two out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 28.8 percent.
Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded the highest inflation rate of 44.3 percent, while the Publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media experienced the least inflation rate of 2.6 percent.
Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral product, another division of the manufacturing sub-sector, recorded an annual inflation rate of 18.0 percent in February 2022, as compared to 16.9 percent in January 2022. Manufacture of food products and beverages also experienced a rise in its annual inflation rate which rose to 37.8 percent in February 2022, relative to 35.4 percent in January 2022. Inflation rate in the Electricity and Water Supply division rose to 0.5 percent in February 2022, as compared to 0.2 percent in January 2022.
Trends in producer price inflation
In February 2021, the producer price inflation rate for all industry was 10.3 percent. The rate however, increased to record 13.0 percent in March 2021, but declined to 10.9 percent in April 2021. In May 2021, the rate increased to 11.8 percent but decreased continuously to record 8.1 percent in August 2021. Subsequently, the rate increased continuously to record 21.4 percent in February 2022.
Petroleum Price Index
The producer inflation rate in the petroleum sub-sector was 13.7 percent in February 2021. The rate increased to peak at 31.0 percent in March 2021 but tumbled to record 25.3 percent in August 2021. Subsequently, it increased continuously to record 58.4 percent in November 2021, but dropped to 35.0 percent in January 2022. In February 2022, the rate increased to 44.3 percent.
The Ghana Statistical Service provides the annual (year-on-year) and monthly producer inflation rates for all industry and three major sub-sectors of industry (Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing and Utilities) for the last twelve months. The Service however, cautioned that the figures for the month of February 2022 are provisional, and are subject to revision when additional data become available but all other indicators are final.
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