Local producers saw a price decrease of 3.9 per cent in November 2024, compared to the same period the previous year, fueled by a decrease in prices of manufacturing activities, according to the Producer Price Index (PPI) published by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) on December 31. This is while export producer prices increased by 8.2 percent due to an increase in prices of tea and mining products by 24.5 per cent and 1.2 percent, respectively. However, there was a drop of 4.7 per cent in coffee prices on the export market. ALSO READ: Beef prices rise, while small livestock costs remain stable Generally, producer prices decreased by 0.1 percent on an annual basis and increased by 3.4 percent on a monthly basis, in November 2024. The Producer Price Index measures the average change over time in prices received by domestic producers to produce their goods and services for local sales and exports. The PPI survey covers a sample of 114 establishments and 402 products spread countrywide by NISR and the National Bank of Rwanda. This is a measure of inflation from the producers’ perspective. ALSO READ: Consumer prices rise by 3.8% in October According to the statistics, the index reached an all-time high of 8.2 per cent in February 2019 and a record low of -5.30 per cent in July 2022. The industries that comprise the PPI include mining, manufacturing, natural gas, electricity, construction, waste, information and communication. While most prices in other industries remained unchanged, general prices of manufacturing activities decreased by 0.2 per cent with food products reducing by 1.8 percent and beverages increasing by 7.4 per cent. This was also indicated in the GDP performance of the third quarter of 2024, whereby the statistics body indicated that food processing decreased by 1 per cent, following the growth of 16 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. A notable increase in the PPI is the printing and reproduction of recorded media that increased by 8.4 per cent on an annual basis. In mining and quarrying, there was an increase of 1.2 per cent, and the manufacturing of non-metallic mineral products increased by 8.4 per cent. The Producer Price Index looks at inflation from the viewpoint of industry and business, meaning that it looks at price changes before consumers purchase final goods and services. It is an economic indicator that can be used to predict inflation before the Consumer Price Index – consumer prices that indicate the cost of living. In November, consumer prices rose by five per cent year-on-year, and up from 3.8 per cent in October 2024. The data also show that local products increased by five per cent on annual change and it increased by 0.3 per cent on monthly basis, while prices of imported products increased by 5.1 per cent on annual basis and it decreased by 0.4 per cent on monthly basis.
