February Records 9.2% CPI Inflation Rate

THE year-on-year inflation rate regarding Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2019, was 9.2% compared to 9.0% recorded in January 2019, a Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report has indicated.

According to the GSS, the monthly change rate in February 2019 was 1.0% which is the same as recorded in January 2019.

Acting Deputy Government Statistician, David YenukwaKombat, made this known to the media on yesterday in Accra.

He indicated that the year-on-year non-food inflation rate for February 2019 was 9.7% compared with the rate of 9.5% recorded in January 2019.

The year-on-year food inflation rate for February 2019 was 8.1 percent, compared with 8.0 percent recorded in January 2019, according to him.

He also noted that the year-on-year non-food inflation rate (9.7%) is 1.6 percentage points higher than the food inflation rate (8.1%).

In February 2019, he added, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items (10.6%) was 2.0 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items (8.6%).

According to him, “the main ‘price drivers’ for the non-food inflation rate were Clothing and footwear (13.3%), Recreation and Culture(13.2%), Transport (12.8%), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (11.6%) and Miscellaneous goods and services (10.0%).”

He added that “the ‘price drivers’ for the food inflation rate were Coffee, tea and cocoa (11.6%), Fruits (10.0%), Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices (9.9%) and Meat and meat products (9.1%).”

Four regions namely Upper West, BrongAhafo, Western and Ashanti, he indicated, recorded inflation rates above the national average and Volta region recorded the same inflation rate as the national average of 9.2 percent.

He noted that Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.4 percent, followed by BrongAhafo Region (10.2%), while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate (7.9%) in February 2019.