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02.03.2009 Business & Finance

Industry Inflation Up

By Daily Guide
Industry Inflation Up
02.03.2009 LISTEN

Magnus Ebo Duncan Inflation for industry inched up to11.29 percent for January 2009 from the 9.69 percent recorded in December 2008.

This represented an increase of 1.59 percentage points in inflation over that of December 2008.

The increase implied that ex-factory prices for all industry, which includes manufacturing, mining and quarrying as well as the utilities sub-sectors were on average higher than they were in January 2008.

According to figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the percentage change in the PPI for January 2009 relative to January 2008 were mining and quarrying, 30.48 percent; manufacturing, 10.42 percent and utilities, 1.26 percent.

That means the rate of the PPI for mining and quarrying, manufacturing and utilities sub sectors increased by 7.92, 0.26 and 0.18 percent respectively.

With regard to the manufacturing sector, fourteen out of sixteen of the major groupings showed appreciable increases of at least 10 percent in their index level, ranging from 12.89 percent to 103.49 percent .

Four out of eleven sub groups that contributed at least four percent each to the total manufacturing output had increases of at least one percent in their index level.

These sub groups were production, processing and preservation of meat, fish, fruit, vegetable, oils and fats; spinning, weaving and finishing of textiles; manufacture of products of wood, cork, straw and plaiting materials and manufacture of non-metallic mineral products.

On mining, the rise in the index was strongly associated with the increase in the prices of metal ores which represent 95 percent of the output of the sub-sector.

During the month of January 2009, inflation in the mining and quarrying sub-sector showed an increase and recorded the highest, with utilities recording the lowest.

All other sub-sectors recorded some increases in their index level with manufacturing and utilities sub sectors recording increases of less than 0.5 percentage points in their inflation.

 Magnus Ebo Duncan, Head of Economics Statistics at the GSS explained that increases in gold price resulted in the rise in the industry inflation.

By Charles Nixon Yeboah

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