Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rose to a record nineteen-year high to 23.6% in April 2022, the highest since 30% recorded in April 2003.

According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the nominal CPI for April 2022 was 156.5 relative to 126.6 in April last year. This resulted in the year-on-year inflation rate of 23.6% reported in the fourth month of the year.

The national year-on-year inflation rate in April 2022 was 4.2 percentage points higher than the 19.4% recorded in March 2022. National year-on-year inflation was driven mainly by transport which recorded the highest inflation rate of 33.5%.

Aside transport, three other divisions (Household Equipment & Routine Maintenance, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels) recorded inflation rates above the national average in April this year.

National year-on-year inflation was 13.9% in January 2022 but rose to 15.7% in February before rising further by 3.7 percentages points to 19.4% in the last month of the first quarter of 2022. It then continued its upward trend, moving beyond the 20% mark in April.

The current inflation rate means that cumulatively, average prices rose by 9.7 percentage points in the first four months, a consistent monthly rise so far in 2022.

Month-on-month inflation between March and April 2022 was 5.1%, higher than 4.0% recorded between February and March 2022.

Food inflation and Non-food inflation

In April, food inflation rose again by 4.2 percentage points to 26.6%, higher than the 22.4% recorded in March and almost twice above the average of the previous 12 months of 13.5%.

Food inflation’s 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%).

Also, Non-food year-on-year inflation on average, went up again to 21.3% in April 2022 compared to 17.0% in March 2022. Only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions (Transport) had the 12 months’ rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for April 2022 for all the divisions.

Imported, Local and Regional Inflation

The recent data showed that inflation for both local and imported commodities rose in April 2022 compared to the previous month. According to the GSS, the inflation for imported goods was 24.7% in April, higher than the 17.3% recorded for March 2022.

Similarly, inflation for locally produced items was 23.0%, up from the 20.0% in March 2022. “This is the first time in 29 months that inflation for imported items exceeded domestic inflation”, the GSS stated.

At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 18.4% in the Upper East Region to 26.7% in the Central Region. Central Region again recorded the highest month-on-month inflation of 8.8% in the first month of the second quarter of 2022. It is worth noting that all regions recorded positive month-on-month inflation rate in April 2022, above 2.0%.

The rise in global oil prices, the instability of the local currency coupled with the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine are some of the factors impacting average prices in the country.

April’s inflation rate showed that inflation is running further away from the grips of the Central Bank’s upper target band of 10%, despite drastic measures rolled out in March this year by the Bank of Ghana aimed at taming inflation in the country.