Baah Wadieh
The month of January 2018 recorded a Producer Price Inflation (PPI) rate of 7.7 percent, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The rate, according to Baah Wadieh, acting Government Statistician, indicates that between January and January 2018 (year-on-year), the PPI increased by 7.7 percent.”
He said “this rate represents a 1.0 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in December 2017 (8.7%).
The month-on-month change in producer price index between December 2017 and January 2018 was 1.2 percent, according to him.
He said that PPI in the mining and quarrying subsector decreased by 0.8 percentage point over the December 2017 rate of 19.1 percent to record 18.3 percent in January 2018.
The producer inflation for the manufacturing subsector, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, decreased by 1.3 percentage points to record 7.3 percent, Mr Wadieh said.
In the utilities subsector, the statistician indicated that the sector recorded an inflation rate of 0.2 percent in January 2018, representing a decrease of 0.2 percentage point relative to the rate recorded in December 2017.
In January 2017, the PPI rate for all industry was 3.1 percent.
In February 2017, the rate increased to 5.4 percent and then to 6.0 percent in March 2017 but declined consistently to record 2.0 percent in July 2017.
In August 2017, the rate increased to 6.6 percent and then to 7.5 percent in September 2017.
Again, the rate increased to 8.3 percent in October 2017, but declined to 7.1 percent in November 2017. In December 2017, the rate increased to 8.7 percent.
By Melvin Tarlue