Ghana’s annual inflation rate has jumped from 7.8 per cent in March, 2020 to 10.6 per cent in April 2020, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.
This represents a 2.8 percentage increase over the figure recorded in March, and a month-on-month change rate of 3.2 per cent.
Announcing the April inflation rate at a news conference in Accra yesterday, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel K. Annim said the April inflation rate was the highest since the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index in August last year.
He explained that the rise in the April inflation rate was driven by the increase in food inflation rate.
“The Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages Division recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 14.4 percent. This is 6.5 percentage points higher than the March 8.4 per cent and 6.5 percentage points higher than the average food inflation rate recorded in the previous eight months (7.9 percent),” Prof Annim said.
He said within the food division vegetables and fruits and nuts recorded the highest month-on-month and year-on-year inflation rates.
The Government Statistician indicted that the non-food sector recorded an inflation rate of 7.7 per cent which was below the average for the last eight months of 7.8 per cent.
Professor Annim said inflation for imported goods in April stood at 4.9 per cent, while inflation of local goods was 13.1 per cent on average.
“This is the highest rate of local inflation and the lowest rate of imported goods since the rebasing in August 2019. Month-on-month inflation for imported goods was zero per cent, while month-on-month inflation for local goods was 4.5 per cent,” he said.
Professor Annim explained that the main contributor to local inflation was the inflation of locally produced goods.
At the regional level, the Government Statistician said the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 2.3 per cent in the Upper East Region to 15.1 in Greater Accra.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
