Prof Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician
The year-on-year Producer Price Inflation (PPI) has risen sharply to 16.5% for March 2024 as compared with the 12.5% recorded in February 2024 for both goods and services.
According to the latest data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) the month-on-month producer inflation was 4.3%.
According to the GSS, the construction sector registered the highest year-on-year inflation of 56.5%, followed by electricity and gas (27.0%) and mining and quarrying (26.7%).
Water supply, sewerage, waste (7.4%); manufacturing (7.1%), and information and communication (6.2%) registered the lowest year-on-year inflation.
Electricity and gas recorded a 27% inflation rate for March 2024, an increase of 7.5 percentage points over the February rate of (19.5%) 11 sub-groups within the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates above the sub-sector average.
They included the manufacture of motor vehicles and trailers (65.2%); the manufacture of beverages (38.4%) and the manufacture of wearing apparel (24.0%).
For the services sector, air transport recorded the highest year-on-year inflation of 30.5%. It was followed by postal and courier activities (25.0%) and programming and broadcasting activities (19.3%).
Also, the service producer price inflation in the transport and storage sub-sector, increased by 0.9 percentage points over the February 2024 rate of 11.2% to 12.1% in March 2024.
The accommodation and food services subsector rate increased by 5.5 percentage points to 20.9% in March 2024. The information and communication sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 6.2 percent for March 2024.
Also, the producer price inflation in the industry sector excluding the construction sector increased to 20.7% in March 2024 from 11.8% in February 2024. The rate in the construction sector increased to 56.5% in March 2024.
A Business Desk Report