Pretoria - Producer Price Inflation, which is the price of goods leaving factories and mines, came in at 0.7 percent for December 2009, reported Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
"This rate is 1.9 percentage points higher than the corresponding annual rate of -1.2 percent in November," said Stats SA on Thursday.
The higher annual rate came as a result of increases in the annual rate of change in the Producer Price Indices for mining and quarrying; and products of petroleum and coal.
Standard Bank economist Danelee van Wyk said the data came in higher than expected.
"It came in higher than market expectation but it shows that the periods of deflation are coming to an end. We don't see prices falling again," she said.
Market consensus was that it would come in at 0.4 percent month-on-month.
