The Producer Price Index (Manufacturing) for February 2015 stood at 106.1 points, representing a decrease of 11.2 per cent when compared with the 119.4 points recorded for the previous month.
Increases were recorded for Other Manufacturing by 6.3 per cent; Wearing Apparel by 1.6 per cent; and Fabricated Metal Products, except Machinery and Equipment, by 1.1 per cent.
Decreases were registered for Beverages by 46.9 per cent and Petroleum and Chemical Products by 7.0 per cent.
Food Products, Printing and Reproduction of Recorded Media, Rubber and Plastics Products, Other Non-metallic Mineral Products and Furniture remained constant over the period.??Between February 2014 and February 2015, the Producer Price Index declined by 0.5 per cent from 106.7 points to 106.1 points.
The Food Production Sector experienced a decline of 0.3 per cent between February 2014 and February 2015. Decreases in prepared animal feeds of 5.6 per cent and Sugar by 2.7 per cent contributed to the decline.
However, increases were recorded during the period for the processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans and molluscs by 6.1 per cent and the processing and preserving of meat by 1.1 per cent.
Beverages decreased by 0.9 per cent during the period February 2014 to February 2015. This was due to a decline in distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits of 1.7 per cent.
The Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products Sector showed a decrease of 0.3 per cent between February 2014 and February 2015. An increase of 0.6 per cent in articles of concrete, cement and plaster was recorded during the period.
An increase of 2.5 per cent was recorded for the Fabricated Metal Product Sector (except machinery and equipment) during the period February 2014 to February 2015.
This can be attributed to increases in other fabricated metal products not elsewhere classified by 10.0 per cent; and the forging, pressing, stamping and roll-forming of metal; and powder metallurgy, by 3.4 per cent.