Wholesale prices ease in June

Manila, Philippines -  Wholesale prices of goods eased in June mostly due to reductions in the prices of crude materials, mineral fuels and chemicals, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

In a report posted on its website, the NSO said the General Wholesale Price Index (GWPI) at the national level went up year-on-year by a slower 0.1 percent in June from May’s 0.3 percent.

“This was effected by the annual reductions in the following indices: crude materials, inedible except fuels (-26.9 percent from -29.6 percent); mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (-4.0 percent from 1.2 percent); and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats (-2.9 percent from -5.7 percent),” the NSO said.

Also contributing to the easing of the GWPI, it said, were the slower annual increases seen in prices of beverages and tobacco (1.8 percent from two percent); manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials index (2.3 percent from 2.5 percent); and miscellaneous manufactured articles index (1.8 percent from two percent).

Higher annual gain, meanwhile, was seen in the food index which rose to 4.7 percent from 1.8 percent.

The machinery and transport equipment index likewise went up to 2.2 percent from 2.1 percent.

The NSO said that in terms of island group, wholesale prices of goods in Luzon fell annually to -0.5 percent in June from 0.2 percent in the previous month.

It attributed the decline in wholesale prices in Luzon to the annual downward movement of the mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials index; crude materials, inedible except fuels index; and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index.

In the Visayas, the GWPI also declined further to -1.2 percent year-on-year in June from the -0.5 percent in May.

The NSO said the further drop in the GWPI was due to the annual decrease in the prices of crude materials, mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials as well as miscellaneous manufactured articles.

But while the GWPI in Luzon and Visayas were down, wholesale prices of commodities in Mindanao picked up by 1.7 percent year-on-year in June from the previous month’s 1.2 percent.