This is 2% lower than February's annual rate of 7.3%.
Stats SA said this could be explained in the rate of change in the PPI for basic metals (from 42.1% in February to 40.2% in March), food at manufacturing (from 10.9% to 9.4%), agricultural products (from 6% to -2.1%) and mining and quarrying (from 5.9% to -10.5%).
Stats SA said the decrease was partially counteracted by an increase in the annual rate of change for electricity and other manufactures.
From February to March 2009 the PPI for domestic output increased by 0.1%. This was due to monthly contributions from increases in the price indices for other manufactures.
The annual rate of change in the PPI for exported commodities is lower at 0% at March 2009.
“This rate is 1.6 percentage points lower than the corresponding annual rate of 1.6% at February 2009,” said Stats SA.
Stats SA announced the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a method used by the Reserve Bank to measure inflation, dropped slightly to 8.5% in March.
This is 0.1 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annual rate of 8.6% recorded in February 2009.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
