MANILA, Philippines — Factory gate prices surged at the start of the year as increases were recorded in the majority of industry groups, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said. Latest data from PSA showed the Producer Price Index (PPI) for January accelerated by 4.1 percent, significantly faster than the 0.6 percent in December 2021. In the same period last year, the index slipped by 5.8 percent. On a month-on-month basis, the PPI still went up at a faster pace of 1.1 percent compared to 0.4 percent in the last month of 2021. The PSA attributed the upturn to the annual increases in the…