GSS: February Inflation Rate Stands At 15.7%

Government statistician, Samuel Kobina Annim says the National inflation rate from February 2021 to February 2022 stands at 15.7% which is 1.8 percentage points higher than the 13.9% recorded in January 2022.

Kobina Anim noted that this is the second-highest that the country has recorded since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was rebased in August 2019. The highest was recorded during the COVID-19 period between March and April 2020 when the variation was 2.8 percentage points.

Additionally, he noted that the month-on-month inflation between January 2022 and February 2022 was 2.4%.

He indicated that “This compares to a month on month variation of 2.1% between December 2021 and January 2022 indicating a 0.3 variation on a month on month rate of inflation between December 2021 and January 2022 relative to January 2022 and February 2022”.

The GSS notes that three Divisions including Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels, Transport and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, recorded inflation rates above the national average of 15.7% with Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (25.4% ) recording the highest inflation.

At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 11.6% in the Western Region, the lowest to 19.5% in the Greater Accra Region, the region to record the highest level of inflation.

Food inflation in February increased from 13.7% in January 2022 to 17.4% in February 2022, higher than the average of the previous 12 months (10.8%) contributing to total inflation increased from 44.2% in January 2022 to 49.4% in February 2022.

“Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again in February 2022 compared to January 2022 (from 14.1% to 14.5%). Only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions had the 12 month rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for February 2022 for the divisions. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels recorded the highest inflation in February 2022 (25.4%)”, the GSS noted.

“The inflation for imported goods was 12.9% (which is higher than the 11.0% recorded for January 2022) while the inflation for locally produced items was 16.7% (up from the 15.0% recorded in January 2022)”.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini