NEWS RELEASE
Producer Price Index
Highlights
October 2007

December 18, 2007

This monthly bulletin of producer prices represents a new index number series that was introduced in February 2007. The series provides information on a new economic indicator, the Producer Price Index which tracks price movements at the level of the producer. The bulletin covers producer prices for two industries; Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing and is published with a two month lag. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the Mining & Quarrying industry rose by 1.3 per cent in October when compared with the index for the previous month. For the Manufacturing industry , output prices for producers grew by 3.8 per cent in October, higher than September's increase of 2.3 per cent.

For the period, October 2006 to October 2007, the PPI increased by 8.3 per cent for the Mining & Quarrying industry, while the Manufacturing industry recorded an upward movement of 17.9 per cent. A major contributor to this increase in Manufacturing was the 43.8 per cent rise in the index for 'Refined Petroleum Products'. Fiscal year to date movements in the PPI, from April to October 2007 reflected increases in Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing of 4.9 and 11.1 per cent respectively.

The Producer Price Index Bulletin for October 2007 provides detailed information on the movement of producer prices and is available at the Statistical Institute of Jamaica's Distribution Centre located at 7 Cecelio Ave , Kingston 10. Data on the PPI are also available on the STATIN website at www.statinja.com .