Producer Price Inflation rises to 5.4% due to cedi depreciation

This is a 2. 0 percentage point increase compared to the 3.4 percent recorded in January 2019.

The Producer Price Index is the price manufacturers and producers sell their products at the wholesale level.

The increase means that retailers had to pay more on the goods they bought at the factory level compared to what they paid in January.

But the rate is a 0.1 percent reduction of the 5.5 percent Producer Price Inflation recorded in the same month last year.

The Statistical Service indicated that the increase was mainly due to the depreciation of the cedi and the cost of Gold and refined petroleum products on the world market.

Prices in the Mining and Quarrying industry recorded the highest increase at 4.5 percent to 13.4 percent from the 8.9 recorded in January.

This was followed by the Manufacturing sector which recorded a 2 percent increase to 5.0 percent.

However, prices in the utility sector did not record an increase.

At a press conference, the Acting Government Statistician said “we are usually not able to tell how the system reacts to policies put together by the government. For example, the cedis was depreciating, and we have the Finance Minister talking about measures to stabilize it in the shortest possible time. When that happens it is likely to have an impact on the market, but we don’t know how.”