NEWS RELEASE
Producer Price Index
Highlights

February 2007

April 27, 2007

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) recently released a new economic indicator, the Producer Price Index (PPI) which will be published monthly. The monthly bulletin of producer prices represents a new time series that will track price movements at the level of the producer for the Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing industries.  The data will be published with a two month lag.
Indices for January 2007 were published in a special PPI inaugural report that covered the period January 2005 to January 2007.

The February 2007 Producer Price Index (PPI) Bulletin showed that the index for Mining and Quarrying remained at the January level of 112.9. However, the Manufacturing industry recorded an index of 109.4, representing an increase of 1.4 per cent over the previous month.
The Producer Price Index for Mining & Quarrying between February 2006 and February 2007 increased by 3.9 per cent, while the index for Manufacturing rose by 5.3 per cent for the same period. Fiscal year to date movements, between April 2006 and February 2007 were 3.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively for Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing.