Inflation rate for February was slightly higher; at 9.2 per cent

The year-on-year inflation rate measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2019 was 9.2 per cent, up by 0.2 per cent point over the 9.0 per cent recorded in January 2019.

The monthly change rate in February 2019 was 1.0 per cent same as the rate recorded in January 2019. These were announced by Mr David Kombat, the Acting Government Statistician, at a media briefing, on Wednesday, in Accra.

The Acting Government Statistician explained that the year-on-year non-food inflation rate for February 2019 was 9.7 per cent compared with the rate of 9.5 per cent recorded in January 2019.

The year-on-year food inflation rate for February 2019 was 8.1 per cent compared to 8.0 recorded in January 2019. The year-on-year food inflation rate of 9.7 per cent was 1.6 percentage points higher than the food inflation rate of 8.1 per cent.

Read also: Ghana's Inflation for January drops to 9%; lowest in 5 years

He explained that in February 2019, the year-on-year food inflation rate for imported items of 10.6 per cent was 2.0 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items of 8.6 per cent.

The main “price driver” for the non-food inflation rate was clothing and footwear (13.3 per cent), Recreation and Culture (13.2 per cent), Transport (12.8 per cent), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (11.6 per cent) and Miscellaneous goods and services (10.0 per cent).

Four regions - Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western and Ashanti - recorded inflation rates above the national average; but the Volta Region recorded the same inflation rate as the national average of 9.2 per cent.

However, Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate with 11.4 per cent, followed by Brong Ahafo Region with 10.2 per cent, while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate with 7.9 per cent in February 2019.

The CPI measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption, with reference to the price level in 2012, the base year, which has an index of 100.

Source: GNA