Ghana's annual inflation rate rose to 20.56 percent in April, up from its five-year high of 20.53 percent a month earlier and still above the 2008 peak of 18.4 percent, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Friday.

Record high prices for oil and rising food prices pushed retail prices up last year, and inflation in the gold and cocoa producing West African country has risen for the last six months in a row despite sharp falls in oil prices.

"It looks more like it's ... holding or may go down, and it's our hope it'll go down," government statistician Grace Bediako said.

President John Atta Mills, who took power in January after a narrow election win, has made fighting inflation a priority.

The inflation rate would fall steadily to around 12.5 percent by the end of the year, Central Bank Governor Paul Acquah forecast on Tuesday, after holding the prime interest rate unchanged at at a five-year high of 18.5 percent.

Investors are taking increasing interest in Ghana before its expected 2011 debut as an oil producer, but a fiscal deficit that stood at 14.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of last year is worrying some holders of its first Eurobond.