April producer price index rises 7.5%

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's producer price index (PPI) for April 2017 rose by 7.5% to 107.7 from 100.2 a year earlier, the Statistics Department said.
The department said in a statement today that the highest increase was recorded by the mining index (32%), followed by manufacturing (5.9%), electricity and gas supply (4.2%) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (4%).
It said the index for water supply dropped by 1%.
On a monthly basis, it said the PPI for local production declined by 0.9% in April 2017 compared to March 2017.
"This was due to decreases in four sectors namely, agriculture, forestry and fishing (6.1%), mining (1%), manufacturing (0.5%) and electricity and gas supply (0.3%). Meanwhile, water supply inclined (0.1%)," it said.
The department said the PPI for local production by stage of processing (SOP) declined 0.9% in April 2017 compared to the previous month. This was due to decreases in the indices for crude materials for further processing (1.9%), intermediate materials, supplies and components (1.0%) and finished goods (0.1%).
Compared with the same month a year ago, the PPI for local production by SOP for April 2017 increased 7.5%, due to increases in index for crude materials for further processing (17.8%), intermediate materials, supplies and components (6.9%) and finished goods (1.4%).