May Producer Inflation rises to 33.1%

Inflation from the producer’s perspective increased to 33.1 per cent in May 2014, representing an increase of 1.8 percentage points over the April 2014 rate of 31.3 per cent.

The month-on-month change in producer price index between April 2014 and May 2014 was 1.3 per cent.

Producer Inflation measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.

The Deputy Government Statistician, Mr Baah Wadieh, announced the rate at a news conference in Accra.

He said inflation in the mining and quarrying subsector increased by 10.0 percentage points over the April 2014 rate of 25.2 per cent to record 35.2 per cent in May 2014.

He said manufacturing, which constituted more than two-thirds of total industry, inched up by 0.14 percentage points to record 27.5 per cent.

The utilities sub-sectors subsequently increased marginally to record 56.8 per cent in May 2014.

Mr Wadieh pointed out that from May 2013, the inflation rate in the petroleum sub-sector increased consistently to record 33.6 per cent in September 2013.

The rate, he said, fluctuated between October and December 2013 after which it increased consistently to record 56.1 per cent in February 2014.

The rate then declined to record 44.7 per cent and later increased to 48.2 per cent in May 2014.