Prices of manufactured goods drop - producer index shows

What you need to know:

  • Decrease. The decrease in monthly prices was due to price drops in both manufacturing and utility sub-sectors.

Kampala. Monthly producer prices for manufactured for goods and utilities decreased in October, Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) data shows.
While releasing data about the monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) in Kampala on Wednesday, Mr James Ambayo, the senior business and industry statistician, said the decrease in monthly prices was due to price drops in both manufacturing and utility sub-sectors.
“A 0.8% drop in the prices of manufactured goods in October compared to 0.3% increase in September. This was in addition to, “A 0.4% price decrease under the utility sector in October compared to a 0.5 % rise recorded in September,” Ubos figures show.
The monthly producer prices of manufactured goods, for domestic consumption remained relatively stable in October compared to 0.3 per cent registered in September.
Mr Ambayo, said the monthly producer prices for manufacturing sector in the export market decreased by 3 per cent following a decrease in export prices of food products.
He said the 4.7 per cent reduction of food prices in October 2018 was influenced by a decrease in prices of processed fish attributed to constant demand for fish catch both regionally and internationally.
Cement prices also decreased by 0.6 per cent in October mainly on account of decreasing prices of raw material and operational costs.

Construction inputs increase
Ms Aliziki K. Lubega, principal statistician Ubos, said the monthly changes for the construction sector show that average prices for construction inputs increased by 0.1 per cent in October compared to a 0.1 per cent decrease in September.
“This implies that one had to pay relatively higher prices by 0.1 per cent in October than in September 2018 for same basket of construction inputs,” Ms Lubega said.