Prices of manufactured goods in the country went up by 6.5 per cent over the last one year from March 2015 to March 2016 due to increased cost of production.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) said there was a general increase in prices for all the industry groups.
Presenting the findings on the Producer Price Index (PPI) for manufactured goods on Wednesday in Kampala, principal statistician, business and industry statistics William Anguyo, said processed food increased by 9.7 per cent.

“This was driven by a rise in prices of sugar which went up by 20.9 per cent as result of increased cost of production attributed to cost of raw materials, and processed coffee increased by 6.8 per cent due to the rise in prices on international market.”
Mr Anguyo added: “Processed tea went up by 8.7 per cent mainly due to a price rise in international market, and processed fish went up by 16 per cent.”
The other manufactured goods which registered increase in prices were malt liquor whose prices went up by 7 per cent, soft drinks by 7.4 per cent, structural metals by 3.56 per cent, basic iron and steel by 7.1 per cent and cement by 6 per cent.
The PPI for manufacturing is an index that measures change in the prices of goods and services either as they leave their place of production or as they enter the production process.
At the same meeting Ubos also released the PPI for hotels and restaurants, which measures the average change in the prices that hotels and restaurants service providers set for their services. Focus was put on hotels and restaurants with total sales of at least Shs10 million per month.

Presenting the findings in this category, Mr David Senyonjo, statistician business and industry statistics, said the overall PPI for hotels and restaurants registered a rise of 5 per cent in the third quarter of the 2014/15 financial year.
Mr Senyonjo said average accommodation prices increased by 4.0 per cent and catering service prices by 6.9 per cent.
“Annual producer prices of conference facilities rose by 10.4 per cent in quarter three of Financial Year 2015/16 relative to the quarter three of financial year 2014/15,” he said.

“However, catering service prices are driven by inflationary tendencies though with lags, consumer taste preferences and packaging – buffets. Some menu prices change due to availability of inputs,” he said.
Ubos also released the construction sector indices presented by Mr Dick Wanasolo Wada, senior statistician business and industry statistics, who said the annual overall prices for the construction sector increased by 6.1 per cent in the year ending March 2016.

Dollar blamed
Ubos says accommodation and catering services’ behaviour could be explained by fluctuations in the foreign exchange market because major hotels charge accommodation in dollars and seasonality effects where there are low and high activity periods and subsequent promotions to boost services demand.