NEWS RELEASE
PRODUCER PRICE INDEX (PPI)
DECEMBER 2007

March 28, 2008

The monthly bulletin of producer prices was introduced by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) in February 2007 and tracks price movements at the level of the producer. It covers producer prices for two industries namely, Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing and is published with a two month lag. All indices are subject to two subsequent revisions after the original release.

The Producer Price Index for the Mining & Quarrying industry declined by 0.3 per cent in December when compared to the index for the previous month. Output prices for producers increased by 0.2 per cent in December for the Manufacturing industry, following an advance of 3.3 per cent in November. Main contributors to the change in the Manufacturing index were a 0.5 per cent increase in the index for Food, Beverages and Tobacco and a 1.8 decline in the index for Refined Petroleum Products .

For the period December 2006 to December 2007 , point to point movements in the PPI for Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing were 23.1 and 19.7 per cent, respectively. For the fiscal year to date (April to December 2007), there was an increase of 5.1 per cent in the index for Mining & Quarrying, while there was a 14.5 per cent increase in the index for Manufacturing.

Quarterly movements in the PPI between the third and fourth quarters of 2007 showed increases of 0.2 and 2.0 per cent for the Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing industries, respectively.

The PPI Annual Review 2007 provides detailed information on the movement of producer prices in 2007 and can be obtained from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica 's Distribution Centre located at 7Cecelio Avenue, Kingston 10. PPI data are also published on the STATIN website at www.statinja.com