ECONOMY
Producer inflation shocks at 8.1%
Posted Fri, 01 Sep 2006
The annual percentage change in the production price index for July was higher at 8.1 percent, Statistics SA said on Thursday. This rate is 0.6 percent higher than the corresponding annual rate of 7.5 percent in June 2006. Statistics SA said the higher annual rate in July compared with that of June could be explained by increases in the annual rates of change in the production price indices for mining and quarrying products, of which the rate increased from 26.3 percent in June to 27.6 percent in July 2006; and food and manufacturing, of which the rate increased from 6.1 percent in June to 7.7 percent in July 2006.
Electricity also increased from 4.2 percent to 5.7 percent in the same period, while paper, paper products and printing increased from 2.3 percent to 3.2 percent.
However, these increases were partially counteracted by a decrease in the annual rate of change for petroleum and coal products, of which the rate decreased from 27.3 percent in June to 22.3
percent in July and agricultural products, which decreased from 21.2 percent to 20.55 percent. From June 2006 to July 2006 the PPI for all commodities for South African consumption increased by 1.7 percent, Statistics SA said. The annual percentage change in the PPI for locally-produced commodities for consumption in South Africa was 8.1 percent in July. This was an increase of 1.6 percent over the June figure. The PPI for imported commodities was 8.2 percent in July, 1.4 percentage points higher than in June.
Sapa
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