Consumer Price Inflation Drops To 11.6%

The Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) has dropped again to 11.6 percent in October 2017.

The figure went down by 0.9 percent from the 12.2 percent recorded in September 2017.

This is the seventh time that inflation has dropped this year with some marginal increases between the ten month period [January to October 2017].

The CPI measures the average change over time in the general prices of goods and services that households acquire for purposes of consumption.

Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh explains that the slow rise in prices of services such as education and health contributed to the decline.

In all, inflation for the non-food category declined from 14.1 percent to 13.2 percent between September and October 2017.

“We attribute the fall in the rate of inflation on the fall in the rate for transportation, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance. In addition, the fall in the inflation rate for alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics group as well as miscellaneous goods and services. But these are all non-food items. So the fall is as a result of a reduction in the rate of inflation for non-food groups,” he explained.

Meanwhile the Upper East region recorded the lowest inflation of 9.1 percent.

On the other hand, the Western and Greater Accra regions recorded the highest inflation of 12.3 percent each.

The inflation rate for the food and non-alcoholic beverage category recorded 8.2 percent.

The figure went up compared to September 2017; this was largely influenced by fish and seafood subsector which recorded inflation of 16.1 percent.

Source: Citibusinessnews