\n\tRIYADH:\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u2019s producer prices climbed 7.5 percent year on year in May as higher manufacturing costs, led by chemicals and refined petroleum products, pushed wholesale prices higher, official data showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tManufacturing<\/a>, the largest\u00a0component\u00a0of the Producer Price Index, rose 8 percent from a year earlier, according to the General Authority for Statistics.<\/a> The increase was led by a 15.2 percent jump in\u00a0chemicals\u00a0and chemical products, followed by a 12.7 percent rise in wearing apparel and a 10.7 percent increase in refined petroleum products.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe latest Producer Price Index data\u00a0<\/a>comes\u00a0after Saudi Arabia\u2019s annual consumer inflation<\/a> held steady at 1.8 percent in June, with housing rents and personal care costs\u00a0remaining\u00a0the main drivers of price growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe increase underscored continued cost pressures across key industrial sectors even as consumer inflation remained\u00a0relatively contained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn its latest PPI report, GASTAT said: \u201cThis\u00a0increase was driven by an 8 percent rise in manufacturing prices, a 2\u00a0percent increase in prices of electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply, and an 8.3 percent rise in prices of water supply, sewerage, waste\u00a0management\u00a0and remediation activities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tPrices for basic metals climbed 9.8 percent, while food products\u00a0rose\u00a03.2 percent during the same period.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe report also highlighted declines in several manufacturing industries. Prices for fabricated metal products, excluding machinery and equipment, fell 4.8 percent year on year, while furniture prices declined 1.9 percent. Prices\u00a0for\u00a0other economic activities also\u00a0fell\u00a05.5 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOutside manufacturing, electricity, gas,\u00a0steam\u00a0and air conditioning supply costs increased 2 percent in May from a year earlier. Prices for water supply, sewerage, waste\u00a0management\u00a0and remediation activities rose 8.3 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMonthly prices retreat\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOn a monthly basis, however, the\u00a0Producer Price Index\u00a0fell 1.8 percent in May compared with April, reversing part of the\u00a0gains\u00a0recorded in previous months. The decline was\u00a0mainly driven\u00a0by a 2 percent drop in manufacturing\u00a0prices, reflecting a 6.3 percent decrease in refined petroleum products, alongside lower prices for fabricated metal products, other economic activities, and wearing apparel.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe monthly decline was partly offset by a 0.5 percent increase in\u00a0chemicals\u00a0and chemical products and a 9.5 percent rise in basic metals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWater supply, sewerage, waste\u00a0management\u00a0and remediation activities increased 1.9 percent from April, while electricity, gas,\u00a0steam\u00a0and air conditioning supply prices were broadly unchanged.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe Producer Price Index is one of the key indicators used to assess inflationary pressures within the economy, tracking changes in prices received by producers before goods reach consumers. The data\u00a0provide\u00a0an important measure of cost trends across industrial sectors and\u00a0help\u00a0gauge broader economic conditions alongside consumer inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tProducer prices are closely watched by economists because they can signal future inflationary trends before higher production costs filter through to businesses and consumers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIYADH:\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u2019s producer prices climbed 7.5 percent year on year in May as higher manufacturing costs, led by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-804620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}