FACTORY gate prices continued to exhibit an increasing trend, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Wednesday, March 30, 2022.Data from the PSA showed that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for February accelerated by 4.4 percent, faster than the four percent upturn in January 2022.In the same period last year, PPI showed a decline of 5.6 percent.The PPI for manufacturing measures the changes in the producer price of key commodities produced by the manufacturing sector.On a month-on-month basis, the PPI for manufacturing still went up with a monthly growth rate of 0.7 percent in February 2022.This increase, however, was slower compared to the 1.2 percent surge in January 2022. In February 2021, the PPI posted a 0.3 percent monthly growth rate.The PSA attributed the annual expansions in the indices of 17 industry divisions led by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products (14.9 percent), manufacture of basic metals (10.9 percent) and manufacture of food products at 6.2 percent.On the other hand, manufacture of wood, bamboo, cane, rattan articles and related products, with an annual decline of 6.3 percent, led the five industry divisions that recorded decrements in annual growth rates.Seventeen industry divisions recorded positive monthly growth rates in February 2022 led by the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations with monthly increment of 1.7 percent.On the contrary, the PPI of three industry divisions recorded monthly reduction, with other manufacturing and repair and installation of machinery and equipment posting the highest monthly drop of 0.2 percent.The monthly growth rates of two industry divisions were at zero percent. (with PR)