Submitted by freenet on Sat, 18/12/2010 - 16:47
Pretoria - Producer inflation eased to 6.2 percent in November, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Wednesday.
Producer Price Index (PPI) - the price of goods leaving factories and mines - eased from October's 6.4 percent. The figure came above market expectation of it declining to 5.9 percent.
"Low manufacturing inflation continues to contain the headline figure," said Nedbank.
Stats SA attributed the decrease to changes in price indices for mining and quarrying, basic metals and products of petroleum and coal. There were also changes in electricity, whose annual rate increased from 20.6 percent in October 2010 to 21.4 percent in November 2010.
The bank said international soft and industrial commodity prices had risen sharply in the past months on the back of strong investment demand.
"However, the impact domestically has been muted so far due to the strength of the rand. Weak demand, both locally and globally, low input costs as well as the strong rand, will help to contain price increases of manufactured goods," said Nedbank.
PPI is expected to ease slightly in the coming months before it picks up again in the latter half of 2011. - BuaNews