THERE has been a 3 per cent decline in overall manufacturing for this year compared with last year.
According to the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, all items index for the Producer Price Index stood at 112.4 for the June quarter of this year.
This represented declines of 0.7 and 0.4 per cent when compared with a year earlier and to the March quarter of this year respectively.
According to the bureau, there is a 1.4 per cent decline in manufacture of food products in June compared with March this year while there was a decline of 4.0 per cent in manufacture in the June quarter this year compared with the same period last year.
Government statistician Epeli Waqavonovono said the movement of all items index was influenced by:
* The world market price of gold, sugar and copra;
* Exchange rate fluctuations; and
* Supplier price of chemicals, chemical products, basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations.
Meanwhile, there was no change in the manufacture of beverages and tobacco products from March to June this year but a decline of 0.4 per cent was recorded for the period last year.
Manufacture of wearing apparel and footwear and leather products increased by 2.1 per cent, however, this was much lower compared with the increase of 4.5 per cent last year.
There was a 1.7 per cent change in manufacture of wood and of products of wood and cork except furniture, manufacture of articles of straw and plaiting materials for the second quarter of this year.
