Producer price inflation increases

Cape Town – South Africa's annual producer price index (PPI) increased to 3.6% year-on-year (y/y) in September, from 3.4% in August. On a month-on-month (m/m) basis PPI increased by 0.3%.

Stats SA said on Thursday that the main contributors were food products, beverages and tobacco products (6% y/y and contributing two percentage points), wood and paper products (7.5% y/y and contributing 0.8 of a percentage point) and metals, machinery, equipment and computing equipment (4.9% y/y and contributing 0.7 of a percentage point).

The contributor to the monthly increase of 0.3% was food products, beverages and tobacco products (0.5% m/m and contributing 0.2 of a percentage point).

The annual percentage change in the PPI for mining was -5.2% in September 2015, compared with 10.8% in August 2015. From August 2015 to September 2015 the PPI for mining increased by 4.9%.

The main contributor to the annual rate of -5.2% was non-ferrous metal ores (-15.1% y/y and contributing -5.4 percentage points).

The main contributors to the monthly increase of 4.9% were gold and other metal ores (8% m/m and contributing 2.4 percentage points) and stone quarrying, clay and diamonds (19.5% m/m and contributing 1.5 percentage points).