May Producer Price Index rises 8%

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's producer price index (PPI) for May 2017 rose by 8% to 107.5 points from 99.5 points a year ago, according to the Statistics Department.
The department said in a statement today that the highest increase was recorded by the mining index (16.9%), followed by manufacturing (7.6%), agriculture, forestry and fishing (6.4%), electricity and gas supply (3%) and water supply (0.3%).
On a monthly basis, it said the PPI for local production declined by 0.2% in May 2017 compared to April 2017.
"This was due to decreases in two sectors namely, mining (6.7%) and electricity and gas supply (0.3%). However, agriculture, forestry and fishing inclined (2.5%), water supply (0.4%) and manufacturing (0.3%)," it said.
The department said the PPI for local production by stage of processing (SOP) declined 0.2% in May 2017 compared to the previous month. This was due to a decrease in the index for crude materials for further processing (1.7%).
Meanwhile, it said the index for intermediate materials, supplies and components recorded an increase of 0.4% and the index for finished goods remained unchanged.