Ghana’s Inflation Drops 9.5% in October

The year on year inflation rate for October fell slightly to 9.5 percent compared with the 9.8 percent recorded in September this year.

The 0.3 percent reduction was as a result of decrease in non-food items.

This was announced in a statement issued by Mr. Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service.

Inflation, which is determined by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption.

Food & Non-Food Inflation

According to Mr. Wadieh, the year on year non-food inflation rate for October this year was 9.8% compared with the rate of 10.3% recorded in September 2018.

However, the year-on-year food inflation rate for October was 8.9%, compared with 8.7% recorded in September.

“The year-on-year non-food inflation rate (9.8%) is 0.9 percentage point higher than the food inflation rate (8.9%),” he stated.

The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate, according to him, were Transport (13.9%), Clothing and footwear (13.4%), Recreation and Culture (12.7%) and Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance of 11.9%.

The “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were Coffee, tea and cocoa of 13.1%, Fruits of 11.4%, Food and food products of 10.5%, Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices of 10.4%, Meat and meat products of 10.1%, and Vegetables of 9.6%.

According to him, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items of 11.1% in October was 2.3 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items of 8.8%.

“Five regions (Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Northern and Ashanti) recorded inflation rates above the national average rate of 9.5 percent.

Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.6%, followed by Brong Ahafo region (10.4%), while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate (8.3%) in October 2018,” the statement read.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum