South Africa’s producer price inflation eased at a faster-than-expected pace in May to the lowest level in five months, figures from Statistics South Africa showed Thursday.
The producer price index rose 6.5 percent year-over-year in May, slower than April’s 7.0 percent climb. Economists had expected the inflation to ease slightly to 6.9 percent.
The latest rate of growth was the weakest since December last year, when prices had grown 4.8 percent.
The annual increase in May was mainly driven by food products, beverages and tobacco products, metals, machinery, equipment and computing equipment and transport equipment.
On a monthly basis, producer prices went up 0.3 percent in May, below economists’ forecast for a 0.6 percent spike.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com