Ghana’s Inflation inches up to 11.8%

• Posted on January 11, 2018
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The year-on year inflation rate for December 2017 was 11.8% compared to 11.7% recorded in November 2017, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has noted.

Baah Wadieh, Government Statistician, who disclosed this Wednesday at a press conference in Accra, said the monthly change rate in December 2017 was 1.0% compared to 0.9% recorded in December 2017.

The year-on-year non-food inflation rate for December 2017, he said, was 13.6% same as the rate recorded in November 2017 while the year-on-year food inflation rate for December 2017 stood at 8.0% compared with 7.9% recorded in November 2017.

The year-on-year non-food inflation rate (13.6%) is more than one and half times that of the food inflation rate (8.0%).

The year-on-year inflation rate for imported items (13.6%) was 2.5 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items (11.1%).

According to him, the main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were Clothing and footwear (18.8%), Transport (18.7%), Recreation and Culture (17.5%) and Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (15.2%) while the “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were Vegetables (10.0%) and fish and sea food (8.8%).

He said four regions (Upper West, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 11.8%, with Upper West Region recording the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 12.8%, followed by Greater Accra Region with 12.7%, while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation of 10.2%.

By Samuel Boadi