Producer price inflation slowed to 4.2 percent last month from 4.6 percent in September, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

This could be explained by lower annual rates of increase in the production prices of mining and quarrying products, tobacco products, basic metals, electricity, rubber and plastic products, and chemicals and chemical products, it said.

The decreases were partly counteracted by faster growing production prices for beverages; transport equipment; office, accounting and computing machinery; and agricultural products.

Stats SA said the 4.2 percent year-on-year increase was made up of a 2.7 percentage point annual rise in the price index for locally produced commodities and 1.5 percentage points for imported commodities.

Producer Price Inflation (PPI) for locally produced commodities for domestic consumption slowed to 3.5 percent last month from 3.8 percent in September.

The annual increase was largely because of a 1.2 percentage point rise in the price index for petroleum and coal products.

PPI for imported commodities also moderated to 5.8 percent from September's 6.8 percent, Stats SA said.

Measured month-on-month, PPI for all commodities for South African consumption grew by 0.1 percent from September to October.

This was largely because of large monthly increases in the price indices for petroleum and coal products (3.1 percent) and agricultural products (1.7 percent).

The increases were partly counteracted by, among others, drops in the price indices for electricity (-6.9 percent), and mining and quarrying products (-1.9 percent).

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SA's official statistics body produces a number of key indicators, including monthly inflation and quarterly GDP figures, unemployment and population counts.

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