Factory gate prices up slightly in October

Gainers during the month also included electrical machinery, basic metals, transport equipment, miscellaneous manufactures, tobacco products, printing and textiles. (Pixabay photo)

MANILA— Factory gate prices expanded slightly at 0.3 percent in October, reversing the previous year’s negative growth of 4.8 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Tuesday.

The PSA attributed the slight upturn for producer price Index (PPI) for manufacturing to the increases of eight out of 20 major sectors, including the increment reflected by the heavily-weighted petroleum products with 7.8 percent.

Gainers during the month also included electrical machinery, basic metals, transport equipment, miscellaneous manufactures, tobacco products, printing and textiles.

Fabricated metal products, leather products and furniture and fixtures led the 12 sectors that posted decreases.

On a monthly basis, PPI likewise went up by 0.4 percent from previous month’s rate of negative 0.3 percent with 14 sectors posting a positive growth, led by transport equipment and furniture and fixtures.

Only three sectors, food manufacturing, footwear and wearing apparel and non-metallic mineral products, posted decreases.

The response rate for October 2017 is 79.5 percent, which corresponds to the retrieval of 597 establishments’ reports out of the 751 samples for the survey.