Continuous reduction of food prices in the last quarter of 2019 has influenced a marginal drop in inflation for December 2019, the Ghana Statistical Service has said.
The national year-on-year inflation rate recorded for the month is a reduction of 0.3 percentage points from the rate recorded in November of the same year.
According to the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, apart from food inflation dominating the rate, housing and transportation also recorded a marginal change during the period.
“The national year-on-year inflation rate was 7.9% in December 2019, .3 percentage points lower than the 8.2% recorded in November 2019. Month-on-month inflation between November 2019 and December 2019 was.3%.
Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Narcotics (13.5%), Transport (11.0%), and Housing (10.5%) were the Divisions with the highest rates of inflation. Due to its relative importance in consumption, Food is the main driver of inflation in Ghana, but less than last month” he notes.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures changes in the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services that households in Ghana consume. This index is then referenced to thepricelevelin2018, the base year which has an index of 100. Relative changes in this index can be expressed as inflation.
Food and Non-food
The Food and Non-alcoholic beverages Division recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 7.2%. This is 1.2 percentage points lower than what was recorded in November 2019(8.4%).
Theh national non-food year-on-year inflation for December 2019 was 8.5%, up from 8.0% recorded in November 2019. Between November 2019 and December 2019 the price level of Food and Non-alcoholic beverages went down slightly (-.6%).
This fall is predominantly driven by a decrease in price levels of Vegetables and Fish.
This stands, in contrast, the increase in Food inflation between October 2019 and November 2019(+1.1%).
Non-food sub classes with the highest year-on-year inflation include Other transport services (34.5%), Postal and courier services (31.5%), Narcotics (28.1%), and Garden products (24.7%).
Maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment (-10.6%), Education (not defined by level) (-8.1%),Cars (-2.3%), Sound equipment(-2.3%), and Electric appliances for personal care(-2.2%)had negative year-on-year inflation rates.
At the regional level, the year-on-year inflation ranged from 5.0% in the Ashanti Region to 12.0% in the Greater Accra Region.
Source: Joy Business