Business News of Thursday, 14 June 2018
Source: citibusinessnews.com
2018-06-14
The 9.8 percent increase is the second lowest inflation rate recorded since 2013
Inflation for the month of May has increased marginally to 9.8 percent.
This represents a 0.2 percent rise when compared to the 9.6 percent recorded in April this year.
The figure represents the second lowest inflation rate recorded since 2013.
The Consumer Price Inflation, measures the average change over time, in the general prices of goods and services.
Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh told Citi Business News, the marginal increase is as a result of the combined rise in the rate of inflation of some food inflation subgroups, and some non-food inflation subgroups.
He explained that the food inflation subgroups included items like coffee, tea and cocoa, fruits, meat and meat products, while the non-food inflation subgroups captured items like clothing and footwear, recreation and culture, furnishings, household equipment.
Providing some figures, Mr. Baah Wadieh stated that “The food inflation rate for May 2018 was 7.6%, representing a 0.2 % increase when compared with the 7.4% recorded in April 2018”.
He added that “the non-food inflation rate for May 2018, however was 10.9%, representing a 0.3 % increase when compared with the 10.6% recorded in April 2018.”
He explained that the main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were clothing and footwear which recorded 17.2%, recreation and culture 14.2%, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance 14.0% and miscellaneous goods and services at 12.8%.
On food inflation, Mr. Wadieh stated that the “price drivers” were coffee, tea and cocoa, recording 10.8%, fruits at 9.9%, mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices at 9.3%.
He added that the food products (n.e.c) was at 9.3% while Meat and meat products recorded 9.1%, with vegetables at 8.1%, and ils and fats 8.0%.
Touching on the regional inflation, Mr. Wadieh stated that five regions recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 9.8%.
“They are Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Western and Ashanti. Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 12.0%, followed by Brong Ahafo region with 11.0%, while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation with 8.4% in May 2018,” he said.