GHANA’S inflation has reduced by 1.5 per cent in the 12 months of 2019, primarily as a result of the rebasing of the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The country’s inflation, which measures the rate at which prices of goods and services are rising, dropped to 7.9 per cent in December 2019 from 9.4 per cent recorded in December 2018.
For the whole of 2019, government managed to keep this economic metric in a single digit margin, a good feat for a country that has historically struggled with high inflation.
Instructively, the 7.9 per cent recorded in December 2019 marginally beats government’s own target of 8.0 per cent.
From January to July 2019, Ghana’s inflation hovered within 9.0 and 9.5 per cent but fell sharply to 7.8 per cent in August following the rebasing of Ghana’s CPI.
It further reduced to 7.6 per cent in September that same year and then increased to 7.7 per cent in October and then 8.2 per cent in November 2019.
According to figures released by the GSS, the reduction in the year-on-year inflation for December 2019 was due to a decrease in price levels of Vegetables and Fish.
Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco & Narcotics (13.5 per cent), Transport (11.0 per cent), and Housing (10.5 per cent) were the Divisions with the highest rates of inflation.
The month-on-month inflation between November 2019 and December 2019 was however 0.3 per cent.
According to the figures, food inflation registered an inflation rate of 7.2 per cent in December 2019, 1.2 per cent lower than the previous month. Non-food inflation was however 8.5 per cent, up from 8.0 per cent recorded in November 2019.
For the non-food group, other transport services (34.5 per cent), Postal and courier services (31.5 per cent), Narctoics (28.1 per cent), and Garden products (24.7 per cent) recorded the highest rate of inflation for the month of December 2019.
Maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment (-10.6 per cent), Education (-8.1 per cent), Cars (-2.3 per cent), Sound equipment (-2.3 per cent), and Electric appliances for personal care (-2.2 year) had negative year-on-year inflation rates.
Inflation of imported goods was however 6.1 percent, while the inflation of local goods was 8.7 per cent on average. This is the highest rate for local inflation and the lowest rate of inflation for imported goods since August 2019.
Ashanti region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 5.0 per cent whilst the Greater Accra Region recorded the highest rate of inflation of 12.0 per cent.
The high rate of inflation in the Greater Accra is primarily due to the Christmas festivity.