National year-on-year inflation continues its mounting trend, rising for the ninth consecutive month to record 15.7% in February 2022. February’s inflation rate was 1.8 percentage points higher than the 13.9% recorded in January 2022 and it’s driven mainly by three sub-divisions.
Month-on-month inflation between January 2022 and February 2022 was 2.4%, up from 2.1 percent in the previous month. This is the highest monthly inflation rate since April 2020 (3.2%).
According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) Newsletter released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, three Divisions (Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels; Transport, and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages) recorded inflation rates above the national average of 15.7%. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels recorded the highest inflation rate of 25.4% in the second month of 2022.
However, Prof. Samuel Annim Kobina, Government Statistician, said the “month-on-month inflation for Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuel for February 2022 is lower than both the average for the past twelve months and the rate recorded for February 2021”.
Rise in Food Inflation
Food Inflation rose again in February to record 17.4%, higher than both January’s food inflation rate of 13.7% and the average of the previous 12 months of 10.8%. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, food inflation’s contribution to total inflation increased from 44.2% in January 2022 to 49.4% in February 2022.
Overall, month-on-month food inflation was 3.2%, which is higher than both the twelve-month national month-on-month rolling average of food inflation (1.3%) and the rate recorded for February 2021 (0.0%). All the 15 food subclasses recorded positive month-on-month inflation with Water recording the highest (9.0%).
Non-Food Inflation
Likewise, Non-food year-on-year inflation on average, went up to 14.5% in February 2022 compared to 14.1% recorded in January 2022. Only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions had the 12 months rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for February 2022 for the divisions. As earlier indicated, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels recorded the highest inflation in February 2022 (25.4%) within the non-food category.
Regional Inflation
At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation for February 2022 ranged from 11.6% in the Western Region to 19.5% in the Greater Accra Region. Eastern Region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation of 7.3% in February this year. In January 2022, Greater Accra Region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation of 5.0 percent which means the rate of price changes in the Eastern region was higher in February compared to January. Upper East region on the other hand, recorded a negative month on-month inflation rate in February 2022 (-0.9%).
Imported and Local Inflation
Inflation for imported goods rose for the fifth consecutive month to 12.9% in February 2022, higher than the 11.0% recorded in January 2022. Imported inflation continue to rise over the past months. Inflation was 10.4% and 9.8 percent in January 2022 and December 2021, respectively.
Similarly, Inflation for locally produced items continue to rise since May last year, running counter to the country’s quest to encourage the patronage of made in Ghana products. According to the GSS, inflation for locally produced items rose to 16.7% in February 2022, up from the 15.0% recorded in January 2022.
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