Business News of Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

Inflation hits 12.3%

Food inflation rate for August 2017 was 7.4% compared with 7.2% in July 2017Food inflation rate for August 2017 was 7.4% compared with 7.2% in July 2017

Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh, has announced that inflation rate has increased from July’s 11.9 percent to 12.3 percent for August.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, 13 September, Mr Wadieh said: “In August 2017, the year-on-year inflation rate was 12.3%, compared with the 11.9% recorded in July 2017. The monthly change rate for August 2017 was -0.2%. This means that the general price level went down by -0.2% between July 2017 and August 2017.”

He added that the food inflation rate for August 2017 was 7.4%, compared with 7.2% recorded in July 2017, whereas the non-food inflation rate for August 2017 was 14.7%, compared with 14.2% recorded in July 2017.

Five regions (Ashanti, Western, Brong Ahafo, Greater Accra, and Upper West) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 12.3%.

The Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 13.4%, followed by Greater Accra region (13.1%), while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation (11.0%) in August 2017.