Producer price index registers slight decrease in Q1

TIRANA, June 18 – The Producer Price Index (PPI) registered a slight decrease in the first quarter of 2010 although production costs increased in some industries. According to the Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, the PPI in the January-March period fell by 0.2 percent year-on-year and 1.4 percent compared to the last quarter of 2009.
The extraction industry registered a 6.3 percent increase with energy producing materials prices rising by 10.6 percent.
The PPI in the manufacturing industry rose by 1.7 percent with production costs for the food, textile and metallurgy industries rising by 0.3, 3.5 and 4.6 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, costs in the chemical industry and the production of electrical and electronic equipment fell by 0.2 and 07 percent.
The PPI for domestic products reached 105.5 percent, dropping by 3 percent compared to the last quarter of 2009. However, prices in the extraction and manufacturing industries rose by 6.6 and 1.2 percent respectively.
The export price index rose 2.3 percent compared to the previous quarter mainly because of a 2.3 increase in the manufacturing industry.