Producer Price Inflation Rises ...

The annual Producer Price Inflation (PPI) for November rose to 17.28 per cent from a revised figure of 16.40 per cent in October, the Ghana Statistical Service said in Accra on Wednesday. The rate is however; lower than those from January to May 2011, which ranged from 20.85 and 24.29 per cent.The all industry monthly inflation is up 1.90 per cent from a negative of 1.25 per cent the previous month. On specific industry performance, mining and quarrying sector rose by 4.92 per cent percentage points over October 2011 to 36.36 per cent while the manufacturing sector increased to 16.50 per cent from 16.24 per cent in October. Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, said the huge leap in the mining and quarrying sector was because of high international gold prices. Petroleum prices had been relatively stable since a big jump at the beginning of the year, recording 26.46 per cent inflation rate in November 2011. There was no change in inflation rate in the utilities sector, which year on year inflation stood at 7.71 per cent. She said six out of the 16 major groups in the manufacturing sector recorded inflation rates higher than the manufacturing sector average of 16.50 per cent. Manufacture of textiles recorded the highest inflation rate 40.12 per cent, whiles tanning and dressing of leather and manufacture of hand luggage recorded the lowest and the only negative rate of 2.59 per cent.