The decline was driven by lower prices in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, which fell 2.2%, mining and quarrying, down 0.2%, and manufacturing, down 0.02%, INSTAT said.

Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index (PPI) reached 129.9 in the second quarter and rose 0.1% year-on-year.

The largest annual increases were recorded in manufacturing and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, both up 0.4%.

Within manufacturing, prices for rubber and plastic products and food products rose the most, by 1.5% each.

The biggest declines were recorded in metallurgy and electrical equipment manufacturing, both down 0.7%. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning prices fell 0.6%, while mining and quarrying prices declined 0.2%.

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INSTAT said in its report on Tuesday that the Producer Price Index change stood at 8.1% a year ago.

According to INSTAT, this INDEX slightly decreased by 0.03% compared to the second quarter of the year.

Data show that prices of the imported products, namely the “electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning” section registered an increase by 1%. The processing industry prices, which account for the largest share of 90.6%, also rose by 0.7%.

The highest price increase is found in the products of “printing and regrouping of recorded media” activities by 3%, followed by “clothing” with an increase of 2.8%, “beverage production” by 2.7%, ” refinery of petroleum by-products” by 2.6%, “production of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment” by 2.5% and “processing of pharmaceutical products and preparations” with 2%, etc.

On the other hand, “production of tobacco product” prices fell by 3.8%. Prices in the section “water supply, waste treatment and management activities, waste” decreased by 1.8%, followed by the section “extractive industry” by 0.7%.

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