Producer Price Index for industrial products up by 4.1% in May

Producer Price Index (PPI) for Industrial Products in May 2019 went up by 4.1% compared to the similar period of the last year, however, it is 1% lower compared to April 2019.

The information was released by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), which says that the prices for electrical energy, gas, steam, and hot water were 12 % lower compared to the previous month, resulting in a -1.43 percentage point contribution to the overall monthly PPI change.

“The prices went up by 0.6 percent for manufactured products and contributed 0.51 percentage points to the monthly index change. Within the group, a noteworthy price increase was registered for pulp, paper and paper products (5.1 percent),’ the agency reports.

According to Geostat data, the annual PPI rate was mainly affected by price changes for manufactured products, products from mining and quarrying and electrical energy, gas, steam, and hot water products.

In particular, the prices increased by 6.3 percent for manufactured products, contributing 5.02 percentage points to the overall annual index growth.

Also, there was an increase in the prices for food products, beverages, and tobacco products (7.0 percent), also for pulp, paper, and paper products (22.3 percent).

As for products from mining and quarrying, the prices were 3.3 percent higher, contributing 0.22 percentage points to the overall annual index growth.

Geostat reports that electrical energy, gas, steam, and hot water prices declined by 10.2 percent and contributed -1.18 percentage points to the overall annual PPI change.

If we compare May PPI to April 2019 one, it increased by 0.2 percent compared to March 2019, while compared to the corresponding month of the preceding year the index growth amounted to 5.7 percent.

In April 2019 the prices for manufactured products increased by 0.5 percent compared to the previous month, resulting in a 0.38 percentage point contribution to the overall monthly PPI change. Within the group, noteworthy price increases were registered for basic metals and fabricated metal products (1.2 percent) and pulp, paper, and paper products (2.3 percent).