Inflation soars in Upper West Region – GSS warns

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has warned that inflation rate for the Upper West (UW) Region continues to soar as the region is gradually showing a rising trend of average price movement for goods and services in the past few months.

According to the GSS, the Upper West Region recorded an inflation rate of 16.8 percent in September, the highest inflation rate recorded among the 10 administrative regions on which the GSS currently reports.

This rate is 6.2 percentage points higher than the national average of 10.6 percent recorded in September.

Surprisingly, Upper West also recorded the highest Food inflation of 25.9 percent in September whilst its Non-Food inflation was 7.8 percent, the fourth highest in the Non-Food category.

Major drivers of inflation in the UW Region

Overall, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics; and Furnishing & Household Equipment recorded higher inflation rates of 25.9 percent, 17.2 percent, and 10.0 percent respectively.

Transport (-0.2%) and Restaurants & Accommodation services (-13.7%) recorded the lowest inflation rates in the Upper West Region in the month under review.

Within the food sub-classes, Cereal Products (45.1%), Vegetables (28.8%) and Live Animals & Meat (21.4%) were the major drivers of inflation in the UW Region in September. Water also recorded an inflation rate of 18.9 percent, which further highlighted the need for the government to streamline its efforts to make water available and accessible to the people in the region.

Of major concern, is the fact that Northern Ghana, which used to record lower inflation rates, now see the highest average price changes over the past few months. The worst of it, is the rising food inflation in this part of the country which is touted as the ‘food basket’. Within the Northern Belt, the Northern Region recorded the second highest inflation rate of 15.2 percent in September, followed by the Upper East Region with a rate of 10.2 percent.

Greater Accra Region

The current trend however, shows that inflation in the Greater Accra Region is gradually easing. With an overall inflation rate of 12.9 percent, Greater Accra was the 3rd region with the highest overall inflation rate in September. Greater Accra recorded a lower Food Inflation of 9.1 percent in September but saw the highest rate of 15.6 percent in the Non-Food category.  This means that Greater Accra’s food inflation was lower than the national average of 11.5 percent but its Non-Food inflation was higher than the national average of 9.9 percent.

The high Non-Food inflation in the Greater Accra Region partly reflect the current status of the Capital, Accra, which currently ranked as the second most expensive city in the world and the first in Africa, according to Numbeo, a crowd-sourced global database of reported consumer prices.  The survey by Numbeo was based on the property price to income ratio. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels continue to be the leading Division driving Inflation in the country, especially, in Accra.

Currently, the Eastern Region boasts of the lowest inflation in the country, both food and non-food. In the month of September, Eastern Region recorded an overall inflation rate of 2.7 percent, with food and non-food inflation in the region standing at 4.6 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

Other regions that recorded lower inflation than the national average of 10.6 percent in September are the Western Region (7.2%), Volta (9.2%), Central (10%), Brong Ahafo (10.1%) and the Upper East (10.2%).