An increase in prices of food, beverages and tobacco products has marginally pushed up the local producer price index. According to the National Institute Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) monthly producer price index for the manufacturing sector, the index for products manufactured locally was 182.55 points in September compared to 182.28 points the previously. This reflects an increase of 0.15 per cent month-on-month, and rose by 2.39 per cent on annual basis. Eugene Kajigija, a senior economist at NISR, attributed the increase to a 2.6 per cent rise in prices of food, beverages and tobacco products."This increase is mostly attributable to the effect of price changes by 25.47 percent in processing and preserving of fruits and vegetables, and 3.24 per cent increase in the cost bakery products, pastry and biscuits,” Kajigija explained.He also noted high cost of production and unstable foreign exchange rate were the other main reasons for the increase.Meanwhile, the index for the third quarter of this year was up by 0.65 per cent compared to the previous quarter. This was an increase of 2.34 per cent year-on-year.That of manufacturing exports rose by 1.9 per cent in the last quarter compared to the second quarter of this year. It increased by 0.58 per cent compared to the index of the same quarter in 2012.