Average consumer prices continue to rise in the country as the national inflation rate rose for the fifth consecutive month to 11 percent in October 2021, a 0.4 percentage points increase over the 10.6 percent recorded in September.
The current rate is also 1.3 percentage points higher than the 9.7 percent recorded in August 2021 and marks the second consecutive month since February 2021 that the country recorded a double digit inflation.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the hike in inflation in October is triggered by high average prices within the ’Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ sub-class with a rate of 20.6 percent, the highest among all Divisions. Transport also contributed significantly to the rise in the national inflation in October.
Month-on-month inflation however, remained unchanged at 0.6 percent between September and October 2021, same as recorded between August and September 2021. This is 0.3 percentage point higher than the 0.3 percent recorded in August. Moreover, the current month-on -month inflation is a percentage point lower than the 1.6 percent recorded in July.
Food Inflation
The pace of increase in the average prices of food has slowed in October, as Food Inflation declined to 11.0 percent from the 11.5 percent recorded in September 2021. It is, however, higher than the average of the previous 12 months of 10.3 percent.
Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation further dropped from 48.6 percent in September to 44.9% in October. Overall month-on-month food inflation was -0.3 percent, which is lower than the twelve-month national average of month-on-month inflation. Vegetables, and fruits and nuts were the subclasses that recorded negative month-on-month inflation. Thirteen out of the fifteen food sub-classes recorded positive year-on-year inflation with a maximum of 17.2 percent.
Unlike Food Inflation, Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again to 11.0 percent in October, up from 9.9 percent recorded in September. Out of the 12 Non-food Divisions, ten had higher year-on-year inflation in October 2021 than the rolling average over the last 12 months. Transport once again recorded the biggest difference of 14.9 percent in October compared to the twelve-month rolling average of 9.7 percent.
Regional Inflation
At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 1.9 percent in the Eastern Region to 19.2 percent in the Upper West Region. The current rate for the Eastern Region represents a decline compared to 2.7 percent recorded in September, yet, the region maintains its position as one with the lowest inflation rate in the country. Upper West Region on the other hand, experienced a rise in inflation compared to the 16.8 percent recorded in September, still holding the title as the region with the highest average prices over the past two months .
Upper East Region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation of 1.8 percent in October, unlike in September when Volta Region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation of 3.6 percent. Three regions (Greater Accra, Upper West and Eastern) recorded negative month-on-month inflation rates in October. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics, and Transport are the Divisions with higher month-on-month inflation across all the regions.
Local and imported inflation
The inflation for imported goods rose for the first time since August to 8.8 percent in October, up from the 8.1 percent recorded in September.
Similarly, Inflation for locally produced items continue to rise since May this 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 11.8 percent in October, up from 11. 5 percent in September. It is very much higher than the rates of 7.9 percent, 9.4 percent and10.3 percent recorded in June, July and August respectively.
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