Producers from different sectors continue to see increases in their costs, and the latest report of the Producer Price Index (PPI) showed an increase of 3.13% during the month of May. This was announced by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) in its latest bulletin for the indicator.
(Producer prices in Colombia fell 0.45 percent in May).
Likewise, the PPI of national production registered for that month an annual variation of 34.32% compared to May 2021, which implies that producers today are paying costs 34.32% higher than those they had to assume in May 2021.
The Dane establishes that the IPP is an economic indicator that presents the average price variation of a basket of goods representative of national production and imports, and that the IPP allows studying the behavior of product prices from the moment they enter to marketing channels.
ANNUAL EVOLUTION
Compared to the country’s situation in May of last year, the PPI report showed how the rise in costs assumed for the production of goods for domestic consumption was 13.69% in its annual comparison, while those of products exported was 34.01%.
In 2021, for the same period, the annual variation of the PPI was 18.71%.
By sectors, the increase in the last year for mining producers is the one that has most impacted the increases in the IPP, since for mining the increase in the costs of producers was 91.47% in May compared to the same month of 2021. In this group, according to Dane figures, the subclasses that stood out for their positive contribution in the last twelve months were: Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude (74.55%), coal, without agglomerating (204.58%) and other fuels (105.51%).
(In industry, where producer prices rose the most in February).
Together, these contributed 16.94 percentage points (pps) to the PPI variation.
In the case of the agricultural sector, the variation of the sectoral PPI was 32.11%. There, the 58.83% increase in the costs faced by producers in categories such as ‘Pipe fruits and stone fruits’ was highlighted. For coffee there is a variation of 50.81% in product costs, while for cattle the increase is 27.5%. In contrast, for potato production, costs show a reduction of 5.85%.
The third sector, industry, showed an increase of 19.96%. The most significant increase occurred in the ferronickel subclass (121.89%), followed by ‘other fuels (105.5%), and threshed or green coffee (63.45%).
THE MONTHLY FIGURES
The Dane report showed that for May the increase in prices was 0.02 points lower than that registered in the same month last year, when the IPP increased 3.15%.
In relation to the costs assumed for the production of goods for domestic consumption, it was 1.06% in its annual comparison, while those of exported products were 7.54%. Likewise, the monthly PPI of the internal offer registered a rise of 1.74% while in the imported ones the variation of the indicator was 3.43%.
In May 2022, the only sector that registered a higher than average variation was mining and quarrying with 9.22%. While in the sectors of Manufacturing industries it was 2.48% and for agriculture, livestock, forestry, hunting and fishing it was, on the contrary, a negative variation: -2.54%.
For the month and broken down by subclasses, those that stood out for their negative contribution to the increase in prices assumed by producers were petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude (11.06%); coal, without agglomerating (6.53%) and other fuels (10.50%). Together these contributed 2.28 pps to the monthly PPI.
In contrast, heThe subclasses of potatoes (-38.27%), root, bulbous and tuberous vegetables (-23.80%) and citrus fruits (-14.86%), contributed negatively to the indicator and helped reduce the monthly rise, and subtracted 0.74 points from the variation of the national PPI.
(Has inflation begun to subside? This is what analysts say).
Likewise, the Dane report highlighted that so far this year, producers have seen an increase in their costs of 19.67%. A year ago, for the same period of time, the increase was 12.75%.
The PPI variation in goods produced for domestic consumption was 9.89% during the first five months of 2022 and for those exported it was 20.87%.
THIS SATURDAY THE INFLATION DATA FOR MAY WILL BE KNOWN
The Dane will release this Saturday the report of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May, and the expectations of analysts suggest that the indicator will see a moderation compared to previous months, and will be closer to 9% per year.
Among the reasons for this trend is, on the one hand, the behavior of several foods with a significant weight in the basket that have seen smaller increases in recent weeks: potatoes, eggs, meat, and to a lesser extent, cheese.
Another effect that could play in favor of moderation is the base effect represented by the figures for May 2021, with high inflation due to unemployment.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
