PSA: Producer price index up 1.0% in May
The producer price index (PPI) rose by 1.0 percent in May, reflecting increases in the most major sectors, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Monday.
This compares with -1.8 percent in May 2017 and 0.5 percent in April 2018.
“The increment can be attributed to the increases of 12 out of 20 major sectors led by tobacco products with 49.5 percent and petroleum products with 18.5 percent,” the PSA said.
Other sectors which noted increases are beverages (16.0 percent), miscellaneous manufactures (11.5 percent), basic metals (7.6 percent), and furniture and fixtures (4.9 percent).
Also included in the gainers are machinery (4.4 percent), electrical machinery (3.9 percent), non-metallic mineral products (2.8 percent), textiles (1.2 percent), paper and paper products (0.6 percent), and transport equipment (0.4 percent).
The PPI, which used to be called the wholesale price index, is generated through a nationwide Producer Price Survey (PPS) of prices of selected products.
“The producer price index is a family of indexes that measures the average change in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services over time,” according to Investopedia.
Compared with the consumer price index or CPI, which measure prices from the consumers’ point of view, the PPI takes into account the price changes from the sellers’ point of view.
The PSA earlier reported inflation accelerated by 4.6 percent in May, the fastest in at least five years.