Producer inflation surges to 17%

Annualised producer price inflation rose to 17.1 percent in December from 15.8 percent the previous month, led by rising gold prices, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.

 

Spot gold was little changed at US$1,691.84 an ounce early on Wednesday after hitting a one-month high of US$1,695.76 in the previous session.

Mr. Baah Wadieh, acting Deputy Government Statistician, at a media conference in Accra said: “On the year-on-year inflation rate for the three sectors, the mining and quarrying sector recorded the highest inflation rate of 27.6 percent, an increase of 8 percentage points over the November 2012 rate of 19.6 percent.

“Manufacturing inflation, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the producer-inflation basket, increased slightly to 19.3 percent from a rate of 19 percent in November.”

From January to May 2012, producer inflation fluctuated between 15 percent and 16.6 percent, thereafter rising significantly to 19 percent in July 2012 before dropping to 17.8 percent in August.

It declined again in September but increased to 19.1 percent in October, further dropping in November to 15.8 percent.

In December, five out of the 16 major groups in the manufacturing subsector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 19.3 percent.

Manufacture of textiles recorded the highest inflation rate (40.1 percent) while manufacture of machinery and equipment recorded no change.