r - revised     

•    Producer Price Index maintains negative annual rate

Producer Price Index (PPI, 2000=100) for the manufacturing industry slowly slid to negative 9.1 percent in February 2013, compared with the year ago level, according to the preliminary results of the Monthly Producer Price Survey.  This was brought about by the significant decrements posted by five sectors, namely: furniture and fixtures  (-28.8%), machinery except electrical (-12.6%), basic metals (-12.5%), electrical machinery (-10.9%); and food manufacturing (-10.8%). On the other hand, increases in the PPI were noted in eight major sectors led by printing (12.6%). Refer to Tables 1 and A-1.

On a month-on-month basis, PPI made a turnaround and reflected an increase of  0.3  percent in February 2013 from negative 3.3 percent posted in January 2013. Petroleum products led the eleven sectors with a growth of 2.8 percent. On the other hand, five sectors reflected decreases in PPI while four major sectors posted flat growths.  Refer to Tables 1 and A-2

TABLE A-1   Producer Price Index, January 2013 – February 2013

                 (2000 =100)

TABLE A-2   Producer Price Index, February 2013 – January 2013

                      (2000 = 100)

            Note:                                                                

•    Response Rate        

The response rate for February 2013 is 82.8 percent, which corresponds to the retrieval of 303 sample establishments’ reports.  Refer to Table 2.

Non-responding sample establishments are estimated using historical imputation with trend adjustment. Revisions to the preliminary estimates are done upon receipt of actual reports from late respondents.

               (Sgd) CARMELITA N. ERICTA
                             Administrator