Government achieves single digit inflation at 9.6%

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the change over time in the general prices of goods and services that households acquire for the purposes of consumption for the month of April 2018 dropped to 9.6%.

Mr Baah Wadieh, Acting Government Statistician of Ghana Statistical Service, explained that the monthly change rate for April 2018 was 0.9% compared with 1.1% recorded in March 2018.

The April 2018 rate of 9.6% is the lowest since January 2013.

Food and non-food inflation

The Statistician said the food inflation rate for April 2018 was 7.4% compared with 7.3% recorded in March 2018.

“The price drivers for the food inflation rate were coffee, tea and cocoa 10.5%, fruits 9.8%, meat and meat products 8.8%, mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices 8.8%, food products not else classified 8.5% and vegetables 7.9%,” he explained.

For non-food inflation rate, the Statistician said the group recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 10.6% in April 2018, compared to the 11.8% recorded for March 2018.

He said “the main price drivers for the non-food inflation rate were clothing and footwear 17.2%, recreation and culture 13.6%, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance 13.0% and miscellaneous goods and services 12.3%

According to Mr Wadieh, the year-on-year non-food inflation rate of 10.6% is almost one-and-a- half times that of the food inflation rate of 7.4%.

He also said that five regions, Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Northern and Ashanti Regions, recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 9.6%.

“Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.7%, followed by Brong Ahafo Region 10.7%, while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation of 8.2% in April 2018,” he added.

Mr Wadieh said in April 2018, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items at 12.0% was 3.5 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items at 8.5%.