Manufacturers receive less at shop floors

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

MANUFACTURERS in the country received less cash for their produce in November, compared to October since price inflation at the shop floors recorded a dip of 1.18 per cent, after recording 1.45 per cent last October, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.
The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the average change in the prices received by domestic producers over time for the production of their goods and services recorded, dipped by 1.47 percentage points to 16.01 per cent in November from the October figure of 17.48 per cent.
The PPI reports the price indices with reference to the base period of September 2006.
The Head of Industrial Statistics at the GSS, Mr Ebo Duncan, told the media that the 16.01 per cent producer price inflation for November was an improvement over the 20.36 per cent inflation recorded for the same period in 2009.
While the all industry year-on-year average inflation for the first eleven months of 2010 stood at 18.85 per cent, the sectors recorded mixed rates.
Mr Duncan said manufacturing, the largest industrial sub-sector, recorded the lowest yearly inflation rate of 3.83 per cent. Within that sector, he said, statistics showed that manufacturing of machinery and equipment recorded the highest inflation rates of 33.79 per cent, while publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media, manufacturing of motors and vehicles, among others, recorded negative inflation rates.
The mining and quarrying sub-sector recorded an inflation rate of 20.35 per cent.
On the other hand, utilities, which include production, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the collection, purification and distribution of water, recorded the highest inflation rate of 71.50 per cent.
The sector's 0.02 per cent monthly change rate, however, is the lowest among the three major sub-sectors: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and utilities.
According to the head of industrial statistics, the inflation rate for mining and quarrying, which recorded the highest monthly inflation change of 3.22 was 20.35 per cent year-on-year.
The all industry inflation rates for the twelve month period of November 2009 to November 2010 was characterised by a hike of 27.71 per cent in December 2009 followed by a decline in the rate between January and May 2010 but increased again in July and September 2010.
It again increased slightly in October 2010 but declined further in November this year.