Inflation drops for first time in 2009

Ghana's annual inflation rate dropped for the first time in 2009 to 20.06 per cent in May, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced on Friday.

The drop is 0.5 in percentage terms as against the annual inflation rate of 20.56 per cent for the month of April. It was as a result of a fall in the food component of the consumer price index which stood at 17.17 per cent in May as against 21.46 per cent for the previous month.

Apart from the Greater Accra Region where the contribution of food component to the inflation rate was highest, the rest of the regions recorded highest rates at the non-food group.

Professor Christian Nsowah-Nuamah, Deputy Government Statistician who announced the figures in Accra, said the rising oil prices were responsible for the high levels of the inflation figures.

With predictions that the oil prices would continue to rise, Prof Nsowah-Nuamah could not predict the outlook of the trend of the country's inflation but was optimistic that it would go down since the country was inching towards the harvest season. 1