Cost of goods goes up again

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday released inflation figures for November, which shows that the average price level of consumer goods and services has reached 17 per cent piling further pressure on workers’ income.

In October, inflation otherwise known as Consumer Price Index (CPI)- a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services- recorded 16.9 per cent.

The marginal rise in inflation in November further pushes government’s inflation target of 15 per cent beyond reach and makes it the 15th consecutive month that inflation has risen. It is also the highest since March 2010.

The Deputy Government Statistician, Baah Wadeah explained at a media briefing in Accra that the rise in inflation for November was driven mainly by increases in food prices as non-food inflation was remained unchanged at 24.1 per cent recorded in the previous month.

Food inflation meanwhile rose 0.1 per cent to hit 6.6 per cent, which has been attributed to a rise in other input costs particularly transport following the three per cent increase petroleum products in November at a time that crude oil prices on the world market as at Wednesday traded at a five-year low of US$65.33.

Policymakers have been grappling with rising-inflation as annual price changes remain above the governments 15 percent target rate, forcing the Bank of Ghana to hike its monetary policy rate by 200 basis points to 21% in an attempt to reduce money supply in the economy and fight inflation.

However, market-watchers are concerned inflation will keep rising as Christmas approaches -- a period associated with high spending -- and put the government’s macroeconomic targets out of range.