The prices of goods and service (Ex-factory ) shot up by 0.9 percent in December 2017 as the Producer Price Inflation (PPI) hit 8.9 percent, the Ghana Statistical Service has reported.
The PPI was 7.1 percent in November 2017.
Mining and quarrying recorded the highest year-on-year rate change as the producer inflation rate increased by 4.7 percentage points in December 2017 relative to the rate recorded in November 2017 (14.4 percent). This appears to be good for the mining players as they accrue more money from the sale of minerals particularly gold.
For manufacturing, the year-on-year rate for December 2017 was 1.6 percentage points higher than that of November 2017 (7.2 percent).
Manufacture of coke and refined products; manufacture of machinery and equipment; manufacture of motor vehicle, trailers and semi-trailers; manufacture of basic metals and manufacture of furniture recorded inflation higher than the national average.
With regard to utilities, the rate for December 2017 was 0.1 percentage points lower than that of November 2017 (0.5 percent).
With respect to the monthly changes, Manufacturing recorded the highest rate of 1.5 percent. The Utilities sub-sector recorded no change while the Mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded the lowest rate of -0.6 percent.
The PPI measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.
The PPI for Ghana relates prices in a particular month to those of the base period, September 2006.