Inflation increases to 11.9%; highest in 3 years

• Posted on October 10, 2013October 10, 2013
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Inflation for the month of September increased marginally to 11.9 percent, up from August’s rate of  11.5 percent.

The current rate is the highest since March 2010’s rate of 13.3 percent.

Speaking to Joy Business after a press conference to announce the rate, Deputy Government statistician, Baah Wadieh, attributed the increase to the recent hikes in transport fares.

“The main trigger is transport because transport recorded an inflation rate of 27.7 percent and that actually impacted on the inflation rate”, said Baah Wadieh.

Transport fares last month went up by an average of 20 percent due to adjustment in the prices of petroleum products.

The  Food component used in calculating inflation accounted for 8.9 percent of the index, while the  Non-food inflation was 14.2 percent.

On the regional level, Western Region recorded the highest inflation of 15.5 percent. Transport in the Western Region increased by 34.8%, while housing increased by 22.9%.

Upper East recorded the lowest of 6.4%.

The inflation measures the rate of change in the consumer price index over the twelve-month period under review, that is from September 2012 to September 2013.

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