Prof. Samuel Annim – Government Statistician
THE YEAR-on-year producer inflation for all industry was 11.1 per cent in April 2021 with the monthly change rate recording -0.1 per cent.
The month-on-month change in producer price index between March 2021 and April 2021 was -0.1 per cent.
The latest newsletter by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) which made this known, said the manufacturing sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 13.7 per cent, followed by the mining and quarrying sub-sector with 11.9 per cent while the utility sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 0.2 per cent.
The manufacturing and utility sub-sectors recorded no monthly inflation rate, with mining and quarrying sub-sectors recording the least inflation rate of -0.7 per cent. This rate represents a 1.9 percentage point decrease in producer inflation relative to the rate recorded in March 2021 (13.0%).
In the mining and quarrying sub-sector, it decreased by 10.8 percentage points over the March 2021 rate of 22.7 per cent to record 11.9 per cent in April 2021.
The utility sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 0.2 per cent for April 2021, indicating a marginal decrease of 0.1 percentage point over the March rate of 0.3 per cent.
Trends
In April 2020, the producer price inflation rate for all industry was 7.4 per cent. The rate increased to record 9.5 per cent in June 2020 but declined to 9.0 per cent in August 2020.
The rate increased to 9.7 per cent in September 2020 but declined consistently to record 7.0 per cent in December 2020. In January 2021, the rate increased to 8.7 per cent and then to 13.0 per cent in March 2021, but declined to record 11.1 per cent in April 2021.
In April 2021, five out of the sixteen major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 13.7 per cent. Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers, and semitrailers recorded the highest inflation rate of 37.3 per cent, while the manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus (not elsewhere recorded) and manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded the least inflation rate of 0.0 per cent. The producer inflation rate in the petroleum sub-sector was -15.3 per cent in April 2020.
The rate declined to record 15.4 per cent in May 2020. In June 2020, the rate increased to -4.5 per cent, but declined to record -5.4 per cent in August 2020. Thereafter, it increased to -0.3 per cent in September and declined to -5.0 per cent in November 2020. Subsequently, the rate increased continuously to a record 31.0 per cent in March 2021, but declined to 30.6 per cent in April 2021.
BY Samuel Boadi