PRODUCER PRICE INDEX - AGRICULTURE (PPI-A)
Fourth quarter 2009
Highlights

1. Monthly index

Overall index

The PPI-A stood at 96.3 in December 2009, following a decrease of 1.4% in October, an increase of 1.6% in November and a drop of 1.3% in December.

Sugar cane

The index for “Sugar cane” for the period July to December 2009 was 82.2 based on the provisional price of sugar for the 2009 crop (-13.9% over the 2008 crop). It is assumed that the same price prevails during the whole of the crop year. It is to be noted that the index may be revised at the end of June 2010 when the final price is available.

Other crop products

- In October, the index for other crop products declined by 4.4% mainly due to decreases in the prices of fresh vegetables (-9.8%) and root crops (-0.6%).
- In November, the index registered an increase of 7.0% largely due to 14.0% increase in the prices of fresh vegetables and 0.5% rise in the prices of root crops.
- In December, the index decreased by 7.7% as a consequence of lower prices of fresh vegetables (-11.9%), root crops (-0.8%) and fruits (-3.6%).

Animals and animal products

- In October 2009, the index for “Animals and animal products” decreased by 1.7 %, mainly due to a fall of 8.4% in the prices of eggs.
- The index registered an increase of 0.9% in November due to a rise of 4.1% in the prices of eggs.
- Increases of 18.0% and 0.6% in the prices of pigs and eggs respectively caused the index to go up by 0.4% in December.

2. Quarterly index

During the fourth quarter of 2009, the PPI-A decreased by 1.8% compared to the previous quarter. This was due to lower prices of fresh vegetables (-11.9%), eggs (-7.8%), root crops (-0.4%), flowers, ornamental plants (-1.1%), partially offset by increases in the prices of fruits (+7.7%), pigs (+18.1%) and deer (+3.2%)

Compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, the index receded by 7.9 %.

3. Yearly index

In 2009, producer prices of agricultural products were on the average 2.7% lower than in 2008
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March 2010