Ghana producer price inflation jumps to 23.3 pct in January

Ghana's annual producer price inflation rose sharply to 23.3 percent year-on-year in January from 15.3 percent in December mainly on utility price hikes and the decline of the local currency, the government statistician said on Wednesday.
The cedi has depreciated around 8 percent so far this year on excessive dollar demand by local firms and commerce operators for their imports.
"The continued weakness in the value of the cedi as we have witnessed in the past months took a heavy toll on manufacturing costs," Philomena Nyarko told a news conference.
She said the utility sector recorded the highest increase in prices, 55.3 percent, followed by manufacturing, which rose to 24.2 percent.
The monthly change in the producer price was 7.2 percent.
Producer price inflation is an advance indicator of consumer price inflation, which rose to a fresh three-year high of 13.8 percent in January.