THE manufacturing producer price index (PPI) contracted anew in February, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday, dropping by slightly faster 1.2 percent from 1.1 percent at the start of 2024.

A year earlier, the index grew by 3.9 percent.

"The faster negative annual growth rate of PPI in February 2024 ... was primarily due to the deceleration in the annual growth rate of manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products industry division at 1.2 percent in February 2024 from 1.8 percent in January 2024," the PSA said in a statement.

Computer, electronic and optical products manufacturing accounted for 46.6 percent of the downtrend in PPI growth, it added.

This category also had the second-highest weight in the computation of the PPI.

Other factors that contributed to the PPI drop were a slowdown for food products (0.5 percent from 0.9 percent) and beverages (6.2 percent from 7.0 percent), the PSA said.

Of the remaining 19 industry divisions, 14 experienced contractions and five posted yearly growth.

Month on month, the manufacturing PPI contraction slowed to 0.2 percent from 1.1 percent in January. It also contracted a year earlier, by 0.1 percent.