ECONOMY
PPI inflation higher than expected
Posted Mon, 19 Dec 2005
Year-on-year producer price inflation rose by 4.5 percent last
month from 4.2 percent in October, Statistics SA said on Thursday.
Economists say this is likely to mean that interest rates remain steady going forward.
The rise could be explained by increases in the annual rates of
change in the production price indices for mining and quarrying
products (from 23 percent in October to 23.8 percent last month),
electrical machinery and apparatus (from 6.3 percent to 8.6
percent), and electricity (from 4.1 percent to 6.7 percent) it
said.
The price indices for agricultural products rose from 0.7
percent to 5.5 percent over the same period, and for food at
manufacturing from -0.1 percent to 0.9 percent.
The increases were partly counteracted by decreases in the
annual rates of change in the price indices for furniture (from two
percent to 1. 2 percent) and petroleum and coal products (from 30.9
percent to 21.2 percent).
Month-on-month,
the PPI for all commodities for South African
consumption rose by 0.5 percent from October to November, Stats SA
said.
The 4.5 percent annual increase was due to a 3.1 percentage
point increase in the price index for locally produced commodities,
and 1.4 percent for imported commodities.
Sapa
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