Ghana’s inflation rate of all goods and services for the month of February remained unchanged at 7.8 percent.
This is despite the fact that general prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages saw a slight increase within the same Month compared to January 2020.
The Ghana Statistical Service cited food items such as vegetables, fruits and nuts and cocoa drinks as contributory factors to the food inflation rate of 7.9 percent.
Items such as transport services, postal and courier services and narcotics also recorded an increase in prices for the period under review.
The inflation figures were released by the Deputy Government Statistician, Mr David Kombat in Accra yesterday, Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
Mr Kombat explains that the inflation rate for February indicates a stable situation which is within the government’s target of 8 percent.
“Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics top the list with 11.6%; followed by transport with 9.9%; recreation, sports and culture with 9%, clothing and footwear with 8.5%; food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded 7.9%.
“The least was recorded by the insurance and financial services with inflation rate of 0.4%,” he explained.
Regional inflation figures
In the meantime, for the regional inflation figures, the Greater Accra region recorded the highest inflation of rate 9.7 per cent.
This was followed closely by the Volta and Western Regions who recorded 9.5 and 8.3 per cent respectively
The Upper West Region, however, recorded the lowest inflation rate of 5 per cent.
Mr. Kombat explained some of the factors that resulted in the high inflation rate for the Greater Accra Region for February 2020.
He explains that “the year on year inflation for February 2020 for Greater Accra for education services was 15.8%; recreation, sports and culture recorded 13.2%, clothing and footwear recorded 13.1%, and the least recorded is information and communication with an inflation of -0.4%.”
He again adds that “for the year on year food inflation for Greater Accra, fish and other sea foods recorded the highest with an inflation of 26%, with the lowest being cereal products with inflation of -0.6%”.
Source: www.ghanatalksbusiness.com
