Producer price inflation inched up to 9.1 percent in January 2021 from the 7.0 percent recorded in December 2020. The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose from 687.7 in January 2020 to 750.2 in January 2021resulting in a year-on-year increase of 9.1 percent.
This rate represents a 2.1 percentage point increase in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in December 2020. This is according to the PPI Newsletter released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday, February 17, 2020.
The month-on-month change in the producer price index between December 2020 and January 2021 was 3.5 percent. This is 2.9 percent higher than the 0.6 percent recorded between November and December 2020.
The lowest producer price inflation in the past year was 6.8 percent, which was recorded in March 2020. March also recorded the lowest month-on-month producer price inflation of -2.1 percent in 2020.
Developments in the three major sub-sectors of industry, namely; Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing and Utilities) for the last twelve months were mixed.
The producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector decreased by 4.1 percentage points over the December 2020 rate of 31.5 percent to record 27.4 percent in January 2021.
The producer inflation for the Manufacturing sub-sector, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total industry, increased by 3.7 percentage points to record 7.5 percent. The utility sub-sector recorded no change in the inflation rate in January 2021.
The Ghana Statistical Service stated that in January 2021, three out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 7.5 percent. Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers recorded the highest inflation rate of 37.7 percent, while the Manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus and Manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded the least inflation rate of 0.0 percent.
Furthermore, the annual producer inflation rate for the Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products, was 6.6 percent for January 2021, as compared to -4.0 percent in December 2020. Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products recorded an annual rate of 18.5 percent for January 2021, as compared to 10.9 percent in December 2020.
Manufacture of food products and beverages recorded an annual producer inflation rate of 5.4 percent in January 2021, as compared to 4.8 percent in December 2020.
The producer price inflation for Electricity and Water Supply went up marginally to 0.3 percent in January 2021, as compared to 0.2 percent in December 2020.
The producer inflation rate in the petroleum subsector was 20.6 percent in January 2020. The rate declined consistently to record -15.4 percent in May 2020. However, the rate increased to -4.5 percent in June 2020 but declined to record -5.4 percent in August 2020. Thereafter, it increased to -3.0 percent in September and declined to -5.0 percent in November 2020. The rate increased to a record of 6.6 percent in January 2021.
The Ghana Statistical Service’s Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.
The PPI for Ghana reports the producer price indices with reference to September 2006, the base period and covers 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 Ghana Statistical Service, however, warned that the figures for January 2021 are provisional, and are subject to revision when additional data become available. GSS added that all other indicators are final.
