Ghana’s national year-on-year inflation continues its upward trend, as it rose by 2.2 percentage points to hit 33.9% in the month of August 2022.

According to data from the Ghana Statistical Service, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August 2022 was 176.3 relative to 131.7 in August 2021. The recent inflation rate marks a 14-month consecutive rise since June 2021, driven by a rise in Housing, water electricity, gas and other fuels as well as Transport.

Month-on-month inflation between July 2022 and August 2022 was 1.9%, down from a rate of 3.1% recorded between June and July. The month-on-month inflation for August 2022 is the lowest recorded so far this year.

Food Inflation

Food inflation rose to 34.4% in August 2022, up from 32.3% in July 2022. August’s food inflation was very much above the rolling average over the last 12 months of 21.3%. Meanwhile, Month-on-month Food inflation also reduced to 1.8% in August relative to the 3.3% recorded in July.

Focusing on food inflation on a year-on-year basis for August 2022, eight subclasses recorded higher rates. This was distantly led by Oils and Fats (74.0%) followed by Fruits and Nuts (49.4%) and Fish and Other Seafood (46.4%). In the case of month-on-month food inflation, eight subclasses record rates higher than the national average (1.8%) in August 2022.

Western Region recorded the highest food inflation (47.0%) and Eastern Region, the highest non-food inflation (42.0%). Eastern Region recorded the overall highest inflation (41.0%) followed closely by Western Region (40.2%) and Greater Accra Region (39.3%).

Non-Food Inflation

Similarly, non-food inflation rose to 33.6% in August, up from 31.3 % recorded in July. Non-Food inflation for the month under review was also higher than the rolling average over the last 12 months of 19.3%. Month-on-month Non-Food inflation also dropped by one percentage point to 2.0% in August 2022 relative to 3.0% recorded between June and July this year.

On year-on-year basis, the difference between Food inflation (34.4%) and Non-food (33.6%) was 0.8 percentage points. On month-on-month basis, food inflation (1.8%) recorded a lower rate than non-food (2.0%), leading to a 0.2 percentage point difference.

On a year-on-year basis, wide disparity was observed across the 13 divisions with Housing, water electricity, gas and other fuels leading by 46.7%, closely followed by Transport (45.7%). Education Service (7.2%) and Insurance and Financial Services (5.4%) recorded the lowest inflation rate among the divisions.

Further analysis show that six {Transport (45.7%), Household Equipment and Maintenance (44.7%), Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas (46.7%), Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods (36.0%), Recreation, Sports and Culture (36.4%) and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (34.4%)} out of the 13 divisions recorded inflation rates higher than the national average (33.9%).

Changes in year-on-year inflation between July (29.8%) and August 2022 (31.7%) have slowed down for three divisions namely Insurance and Financial Service, Information and Communication, and Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics.

On a month-on-month basis, five divisions {Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas (3.6%), Household Equipment and Maintenance (2.7%), Personal Care and Miscellaneous Goods (2.5%), Recreation, Sport and Culture (2.2%), Health (2.2%)} recorded inflation rates higher than the national average (1.9%).

Local and imported inflation

While the contribution of Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas (14.7%) increased by 0.3 percentage points between July and August 2022, food inflation (45.4%) remained the same and Transport also reduced by 0.6 percentage points, 14.9% to 14.3%.

The data further revealed that inflation for locally produced items rose to 33.4% in August 2022, up from 30.9% in July. Likewise, inflation for imported items inched up to 35.2% in August 2022 compared to 33.9% recorded in July.

This means that prices of both local and imported products continue to rise over the past months. In June this year, inflation for locally produced items was 29.2% while that of imported items was 31.3%.

The percentage point difference between inflation for imported items (35.2%) and locally domestic items (33.4%) in August 2022 was 1.8%, lower than 3% recorded in July.