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Prices for manufacturers and food producers shot up to a near-record amount from a year ago due to a big jump in energy and other essential commodity prices in the international market.
The volatility in the forex market is another key reason behind the surge of the producer price index (PPI), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) revealed in a report recently.
PPI, a measure of the prices received for final demand products, increased from 5% to over 28% by industry in April.
Of grain milling, mostly imported wheat increased over 28% in April over the same period a year earlier.
Even on a monthly basis, this has surged by more than 7% in April over the previous month of March.
Excluding locally made jaggery, as well as the sugar prices, the so-called core PPI rose over 23% during the period under review on a 12-month basis.
Processing of fruit and vegetables, which are mostly consumed by the rich section of society, also surged by 23%.
The food industry’s PPI increased by more than 10% in the month.
Manufacturing, excluding the food sector, however, increased by 5% during the period.
There were a few optimistic signs in the PPI report – prices for bakery products and mineral water have tumbled.
Prices for fish and soap, for instance, were stable.
The BBS takes data on the mineral water from leading manufacturers Pran, Partex, City Group, and Duncan Brothers.
PPI tracks the prices businesses pay for their goods and services.
PPI stands for inflation in terms of the producers of goods and services, while the consumer price index (CPI) measures the prices paid by consumers.
In the meantime, manufacturers said that the PPI for dairy products may increase further as the retail prices of the same have already increased in the local market.
The price of liquid milk has again increased by Tk10 per litre while half-litre packs will now cost Tk5 more as leading producers have raised the maximum retail price of their products by 12.5%.
According to retailers in Dhaka city, liquid milk products of Aarong Dairy, a brand of Brac Enterprises, as well as that of Pran and Akij Group’s Farm Fresh have increased to Tk90 per litre from Tk80 previously.
However, the BBS prepares the index by taking data from leading manufacturers of major sectors to gauge the market situation.
They take data from ‘Teer’ and ‘Fresh’ brands for sugar PPI and Mollah salt for salt.
PPI is considered a forward-looking inflation measure as it tracks prices in the pipeline for goods and services that eventually reach consumers.
The data are significant in that prices at the wholesale level feed through to consumer prices.
(DT)
