KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia's Producer Price Index (PPI) decreased by 1.9 per cent in 2023 (2022: 7.8 per cent), mainly due to the contraction in the agriculture, forestry fishing (-13.8 per cent), according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM). DoSM said that as the largest component in this sector, the double-digit decline in the growing of perennial crops index (-23.1 per cent) led to the downturn of the overall sector. 'The mining sector also decreased by -5.9 per cent, while the extraction of crude petroleum decreased by -10.1 per cent after an increase of 6.4 per cent in 2022,' DoSM said in a statement today. Meanwhile, the extraction of natural gas increased at a slower rate of 9.9 per cent as against 43.7 per cent in 2022. It said the manufacturing sector recorded a marginal decrease of 0.2 per cent as against 8.4 per cent increase in 2022, underpinned by the decline in the index of manufacture of food products (-5.9 per cent), manufacture of coke refined petroleum products (-5.4 per cent) a nd manufacture of chemicals and chemical products (-3.3 per cent). However, the decrease in this sector was balanced by the growth in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi trailers (8.9 per cent) and the manufacture of computer, electronic optical products (6.9 per cent). DoSM noted that the utility sector remained positive in 2023, with electricity and gas supply as well as water supply up by 0.4 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, the services producer price index (SPPI) recorded a growth of 2.1 per cent, with all subsectors recording an increase in 2023, except for the Information communication which remained unchanged. The accommodation and food beverage service activities subsector rose by 5.6 per cent (2022: 5.4 per cent) while transportation went up by 2.9 per cent (2022: 3.0 per cent). Concurrently, the other subsectors that recorded increases were arts, entertainment and recreation (2.3 per cent), education (1.0 per cent), professional (0.4 per cent), health (0.3 p er cent) and real estate activities (0.2 per cent). Source: BERNAMA News Agency