Inflation for April dropped to 9.6 percent. This represents a 0.8 percent drop compared to the 10.4 percent recorded in March this year.
The Consumer Price Inflation, measures the average change over time in the general prices of goods and services.
Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh told Citi Business News, the decline is as a result of the drop in inflation of non food items such as transportation, education and health among others.
“The year-on-year non-food rate for April 2018 was 10.6% as compared with 11.8% recorded in March 2018. The year-on-year food inflation rate for April 2018 was 7.4% as compared with 7.3% recorded in March 2018,” he said.
The data showed that the non-food inflation rate was almost one and half times that of the food inflation rate that is 10.6% for the non-food inflation rate as compared to the 7.4% for the food inflation rate.
The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were Clothing and footwear which recorded 17.2% , Recreation and Culture which was at 13.6%, Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance which hit 13.0% and Miscellaneous goods and services which was at 12.3%.
The price drivers for the food inflation rate were Coffee, tea and cocoa which recorded 10.5%, Fruits at 9.8%, Meat and meat products at 8.8%, Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices at 8.8%, while Food products n.e.c was at 8.5% and Vegetables at 7.9%.
Mr. Wadieh also revealed that five regions (Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Northern and Ashanti) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 9.6%.
He stated that Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.7%, followed by the Brong Ahafo region with 10.7%, while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation (8.2%) in April 2018.
The April 2018 rate of 9.6% is the lowest since January 2013.
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Source: Citifmonline.com
