KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Malaysia’s Producer Price Index (PPI) for local production increased 11.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in August 2021, compared with a negative 2.8 per cent in the same month in 2020, mainly due to a surge in the mining index (51.8 per cent).
In a statement today, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase in PPI was also supported by the agriculture, forestry and fishing index which grew 27.6 per cent y-o-y, manufacturing (7.1 per cent), and electricity and gas supply (0.4 per cent).
Water supply, however, eased 0.4 per cent, he said, adding that some primary commodities were seen to have registered unusual increases this year due to the base effect last year.
On a month-on-month comparison, he said the PPI, which measures the costs of goods at the factory gate, rose 0.6 per cent in August 2021, the same growth recorded in July 2021.
“The agriculture, forestry and fishing index moved up 2.8 per cent in August 2021 as opposed to 2.2 per cent recorded in the previous month.
“The increase of 0.6 percentage points was due to higher prices of chicken (5.2 per cent) and fresh fruit bunches (3.6 per cent),” said the chief statistician.
Mohd Uzir also said the mining index declined 0.8 per cent due to a fall in crude oil prices (-2.9 per cent) despite a continuous rise in natural gas commodity prices (10.1 per cent).
However, the manufacturing index was 0.4 per cent higher following an increase in the prices of refined petroleum commodity (2.0 per cent), commodity-based on vegetable and animal oils and fats (0.5 per cent), and products related to electronic components and boards (0.4 per cent), he said.
The index of electricity and gas supply also increased 0.1 per cent while water supply decreased by negative 0.2 per cent, he added.
