Ex-factory prices continued their steady increases as the all-industry Producer Price Industry (PPI), which measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services, recorded 152.32 percent for last month compared to 150.82 percent in May. On the other hand, the annual percentage change of the PPI between June 2007 and 2008 for all-industry was 38.04 percent. This implies that ex-factory prices for all-industry, which includes manufacturing, mining and quarrying, as well as utilities sub-sectors, were on average 38.04 percent in May 2008, and higher in June 2008 than they were in June 2007. It also represents an increase of 3.11 percentage points in inflation over that of May. For the major sub-sectors, mining and quarrying recorded 188.32 percent while manufacturing, which constitutes more than half of the weight used to compute the PPI recorded 143.26 percent, all in May. Utilities however recorded 156.80 percent. On the other hand, the annual percentage change in the PPI for June 2008 relative to May 2008, that is the rate of inflation for mining and quarrying, manufacturing and utilities were 47.54, 34.13 and 44.32 percent respectively. Instructively the rate of producer price inflation in May 2008 for two sectors, that is mining and quarrying and manufacturing increased but fell slightly for utilities. Twelve out of 16 of the major manufacturing groupings showed appreciable increases of at least 10 percent in their index level, ranging from 13.92 percent to 103.83 percent. In addition, 6 out of the 11 sub-groups which contribute at least four percent each to the total manufacturing output had increases of at least one percent in their index level. These sub-groups included manufacture of other chemical products, manufacture of beverages and preservation of meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, oils and fat. The rise in the index for mining and quarrying was strongly associated with the increase in the prices of metal ores. Source: Daily Guide