GSS: Inflation Rate Hopes To 23.6%

Ghana’s inflation rate for April 2022 has increased from 19.4% in March 2022, to 23.6%, the Ghana Statistical Service has indicated.

April 2022’s inflation rate is 4.2 percentage points higher than that of March 2022.

Meanwhile, the month-on-month inflation between March 2022 and April 2022 was 5.1%.

“Transport, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels recorded inflation rates above the national average of 23.6% with Transport (33.5%) recording the highest inflation”.

Regionally, the GSS said the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 18.4% in the Upper East Region to 26.7% in the Central Region. The Central Region again recorded the highest month-on-month inflation (8.8%). All regions recorded positive month-on-month inflation rate in April 2022 (above 2.0%).

The GSS relayed that this month’s food inflation (26.6%) is higher than both last month’s (22.4%) and the average of the previous 12 months (13.5%).

“Food inflation contribution to total inflation, however, decreased from 51.4% in March 2022 to 50.0% in April 2022. Overall month-on-month food inflation was 5.8%, which is higher than both the twelve-month national month-on-month rolling average of food inflation (2.0%) and the rate recorded for April 2021 (2.3%). All the 15 food subclasses recorded positive month-on-month inflation with Fruit and Vegetable Juices recording the highest (15.3%).

“Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again in April 2022 compared to March 2022 (from 17.0% to 21.3%). 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 April 2022 for the divisions. Transport is the Division that recorded the highest inflation in April 2022 (33.5%).

April’s inflation for imported goods was 24.7% which is higher than the 17.3% recorded for March 2022 while the inflation for locally produced items was 23.0% (up from the 20.0% recorded in March 2022). This is the first time in 29 months that inflation for imported items exceeded domestic inflation.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini