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Philippine Producer Price Growth Slows in April

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Philippine Producer Price Growth Slows in April

The increase in Philippine factory gate prices slowed to 2.4% year over year in April amid a slowdown in manufacturing prices of coke and refined petroleum products, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority released Friday.

Producer price growth of coke and refined petroleum products slipped to 5.3% in April from 8.2% in the month-ago period.

The easing of petroleum producer prices comes amid the uncertainty of energy related pressures in the Middle East, the Manila Bulletin reported the same day.

Coke and refined petroleum manufacturing contributed 62.7% to the decline in annual growth for manufacturing PPI in April, the PSA said.

Factory gate prices for computer, electronic, and optical products slowed to 4.3% in the month from 4.9% in March.

Producer prices of food products inched up to a 1.4% growth from 1.2%, helped by the processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans and mollusks.

Beverage producer prices accelerated to a 2.8% growth from 2.7% a month ago.

Vegetable oil producer prcies surged to 4% from 0.9% a month ago.

On a month-on-month basis, producer prices fell 0.1% in April compared with a growth of 1.2% in March.

Higher manufacturing costs could translate to higher retail prices as they are pased on to consumers, the Manila Bulletin said.

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