UPDATE 1 - Albania Q3 Producer Prices Rise 3.8% Y/Y

December 11 (SeeNews) - Albania's producer price index (PPI) rose in the third quarter by 3.8% year-on-year, lifted mainly by growing prices in the processing industry, the country's statistics office, INSTAT, said on Tuesday.

The PPI averaged 104.3 points in the third quarter, compared to a 100-point baseline set in 2005, INSTAT said in a statement. The index measuring producer prices of goods sold on the domestic market reached 104.3 points, increasing by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter. The index measuring the prices of exports also stood at 104.3 points, going up 1.4% on the quarter.

Quarter-on-quarter, the PPI rose 0.5%.

The processing industry, which accounts for 62.3% of the index, was the sector that reported the sharpest increase on the year, by 5.2%. In the processing industry category itself, prices in plastic manufacturing industry saw the sharpest increase on a yearly basis, by 23.4%, followed by the food processing industry with a 13.1% increase. However, on a quarterly basis prices in the plastic manufacturing industry were 1.7% down, while prices of the food processing industry were 3.0% up.

ALBANIA Q3'07 PPI, BREAKDWON BY INDUSTRY (PCT CHANGE)

NOTE: INSTAT has changed the methodology of calculating the index, excluding the forestry and the fishing industries as of the first quarter of this year. The new index is synchronised with the methodology of European Union's statistics office Eurostat.