PPI
Producer prices fall 1.05% in January and record the fourth negative month
February 27, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: February 27, 2019 04h21 PM
The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the prices of the mining and quarrying and manufacturing industries, fell 1.05% in January, compared to December, and had the fourth month in a row of negative rates, accumulating a decrease of 4.16% % since October last year. Concerning the last 12 months, prices in the industry have risen 7.99%.
When considering only the mining and quarrying industry, there was a fall of 8.98% in January, with a cumulative increase of 13.82% in 12 months, while the manufacturing sector fell 0.67% and accumulated 7.75% in 12 months.
Of the 24 activities surveyed, mining and quarrying industries (-0.40 percentage points), other chemicals (-0.36 pp), food (-0.24 pp) and basic metals (-0.17 pp) were the ones that had the most negative impact on January prices. Of these, the most intense falls occurred in the mining and quarrying industries, with -8.98%, and other chemical products, -3.43%.
Iron ore, natural gas and copper ores exerted the main negative influences in the mining and quarrying industry, except for crude oil. "Petroleum is against the grain, because Brazil follows the international market, so the price increases," explains PPI manager Alexandre Brandão.
As for food, the fall was driven by residues of soybeans, beef and soybean oil. The most influential positive pressure was sterilized/UHT/long-life milk prices: "there was an increase in the price of raw milk from the farmers to the industry, which passed on the rise. It's indeed a matter of cost," says the PPI manager.
Brandão explica que a queda nos preços nos últimos meses é uma consequência da valorização do real frente ao dólar. “Há uma pressão negativa nos preços. Isso é importante em produtos que a gente importa, como adubos, que compõem a atividade de outros produtos químicos”.
Among the major economic categories, there were decreases of 0.23% in capital goods, 1.62% in intermediate goods and 0.22% in consumer goods. Durable consumer goods rose 0.88% and semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods fell 0.58%.
The IPP measures the "factory gate" price changes of products, without taxes and freight, of 24 activities of the mininga nd quarrying and manufacturing industries.
