July producer price index up 7.1%

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's producer price index (PPI) for July 2017 rose 7.1% to 106.0 versus a year earlier.

In a statement on Wednesday, the statistics department said the mining index recorded the highest increase of 24%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing (7.8%), manufacturing (5.9%), electricity and gas supply (1.7%) and water supply (0.4%).

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI declined 0.3% in July compared to June due to decreases in two sectors - manufacturing (0.7%) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (0.1%).

However, mining, electricity, gas and water supply sectors increased by 3%, 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the PPI for local production by stage of processing (SOP) decreased 0.3% in July compared to the previous month, due to a decline in the indices for intermediate materials, supplies and components (0.8%) and finished goods (0.3%).

However, the index for crude materials for further processing increased by 1.2%, the department said.

It said the PPI by SOP for July increased 7.1% year-on-year, propelled by the index for crude materials for further processing (11.5%), intermediate materials, supplies and components (8.6%), and finished goods (1.3%). - Bernama