Ex-factory prices slips to 16.8% in Sep.

The annual producer price inflation fell to16.8 percent in September, representing a decrease in producer inflation of 1.0 percentage points. The August 2012 figure was 17.8 percent.

The ex-factory prices of the manufacturing industry recorded the highest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 20.5 percent, being the major contributor to the producer price index’s decline during the year under review.

 Mining and quarrying which followed also recorded a 19.5 percent decline, with utilities marking a 3.0 percent decline.

The pace of producer price inflation for August had initially been recorded at 16.6 percent, but has since been revised to 17.8 percent, the acting Government Statistician, Dr. Philomena Nyarko, explained at a news conference in Accra.

 Dr. Nyarko said that the producer price changes since September 2006 -- as well as the year-on-year and monthly inflation rates -- for all industry and three major sub-sectors of industry Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing and Utilities for the last twelve months reflected a reduction.

The fall in month-on-month producer prices between August 2012 and September 2012 was 1.3 percent. In spite of the double-digit inflation in the wholesale market, the country has managed to keep consumer price inflation below 10 percent.

Annual consumer price inflation increased marginally to 9.4 percent in September.

 In September 2012, producer price inflation in the mining and quarrying sector increased by approximately 2.6 percentage points over the August 2012 rate of 16.9 percent, to record 19.5 percent.

 Manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, increased slightly to 20.5 percent from a rate of 20.4 percent in August 2012.

The Utilities sector recorded 10.5 percent inflation rate in August 2012, but dropped to 3.0 percent in September 2012. During the 12-month period, all industry recorded the highest inflation of 19.6 percent in September 2011 and the lowest of 13.6 percent in December 2011.

From January to May 2012, producer inflation fluctuated between 15.0 percent and 16.6 percent.

However, in June 2012 the rate rose to 19.1 percent but declined slightly in July 2012 to 19.0 percent and further dropped to 17.8 percent in August.

The declining trend continued in September 2012, to record an inflation rate of 16.8 percent.

 During the month of September 2012, seven of the 16 major groups in the manufacturing sector recorded an inflation rate higher than the sector average of 20.5 percent.

Publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media recorded the highest inflation rate of 42.0 percent, while manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded inflation of negative seven percent.

During the last 12 months, producer inflation in the petroleum industry exhibited a downward trend. The highest inflation rate in the industry was recorded at 27.1 percent in September 2011; and the lowest was 16.7 percent, also in September 2012.