JOHANNESBURG, Nov 17 – Statistics South Africa unveiled major changes to its producer price index on Thursday that will reduce the weighting of mining output and make it a more relevant lead indicator of consumer inflation.
The agency said it would do away with the “all goods” PPI and break it down into five industry indices – agriculture, mining, electricity, intermediate manufactured goods and final manufactured goods.
It will also update the PPI basket annually with effect from 2014, while the CPI, or consumer price index, basket will be revised every three years, starting in January 2013.
“This will ensure the PPI index reflects changes in the distribution of production in the economy as soon as source data is available,” Stats S.A. said.
Source: Reuters Africa newsletter
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