THE basket for the calculations of the Producer Price Inflation (PPI) in the country has been expanded to better reflect the current economy.

Consequently, the PPI features petroleum, construction and services. This is after the reference year for computing was updated to 2019.

The rebased PPI rate for September 2022, therefore, surged to 45.6 percent, up from the 39.7 percent recorded in August 2022.

This represents an increase of 5.2 percentage points.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, announcing the new rate yesterday, said the September PPI thus features the following sectors: mining; manufacturing; electricity and gas; water supply, sewerage and waste management; construction; transportation and storage; accommodation and food service activities; and information and communication.

Major drivers

The September rate was largely driven by increases in the industrial sector which recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 54.5 per cent.

This was followed by the construction sector, with 25.1 percent.

The services sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 5.6 percent.

Industrial sector

Under the industrial sector, the manufacturing sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 58.2 percent, followed by the mining and quarrying sub-sector with 57.5 percent.

The water supply, sewerage and waste management sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 13.6 percent.

In September 2022, three out of the 23 major groups in the manufacturing sub-sector recorded inflation rates higher than the sector average of 58.2 percent.

The Manufacture of coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel recorded the highest inflation rate of 148.3 percent followed by the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products with 69.8 percent.

In the mining and quarrying sub-sector, extraction of crude and natural gas recorded the highest inflation of 79.2 percent, indicating a decline of 9.7 percentage points over the August rate of 88.9 percent.

Mining support service activities recorded the least inflation rate of 23.9 percent.

Construction sector

Under the construction sector, the buildings industry recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 88.8 percent, followed by the civil engineering sub-sector with 5.4 percent.

The specialised construction industry recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 5.2 percent.

Services sector

Under the services sector, the transport and storage sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 27.3 percent.

This was followed by the accommodation and food sub-sector with 24.9 percent.

The information and communication sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 0.9 percent.

Sidebar

The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the selling prices of goods and services as received by domestic producers.

Prices collected for the computation of PPI are known as factory gate prices, which are the prices firms assign to their products.

These prices exclude sales and excise taxes, government subsidies other costs incurred by other intermediaries and consumers.

Source: Graphic Online