Inflation drops to 9.8%

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced that at the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 3.4% in the Upper West and Volta Regions to 15.2% in Greater Accra.

Greater Accra is the only Region that recorded a food inflation rate over 8 percent (13.7%).

In Greater Accra the difference between Food (13.7%) and Non-Food (16.2%) inflation was just 2.5 percentage points, while in Ashanti Region this difference was 9.4 percentage points (5.7% compared to 15.1%). Upper West Region was the only region where Non-Food inflation was higher than food inflation.

On a month-on-month basis Upper West Region recorded the highest inflation (2.3%) and Central Region the lowest (-0.7%).

Furthermore, Upper West Region also recorded the highest month-on-month Food inflation (3.9%).

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim noted that, food still is the predominant driver while the “Housing, Water, Electricity, and Gas’ Division contributed 22.6% to the total inflation,”

“Food contributed 53.0% to the total inflation and thus is still the predominant driver of year-on-year inflation. Within the food Division, fruits and nuts (21.7%) was the Subclass with the highest rates of inflation followed by vegetables (19.5%). Even though Vegetable inflation is still higher than average food inflation and overall inflation, it was 5.4 percentage points lower this month compared to last month (24.9%). Overall month-on-month Food inflation was 0.3%, with negative (- 1.6%) inflation for the Fruits and Nuts Subclass,” he said.