Latest figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), indicates that Inflation rate for March 2020 is still at 7.8 percent.
This means the rate at which prices of goods and services change over a period of time was the same for the February figure of 7.8 percent.
It also means that the general price level was 7.8% higher than in March 2019.
Food and non-acoholic beverages
The food and non-alcoholic beverages component of the figures recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 8.4 percent, indicating a 0.5 percentage point higher than last month.
This is the highest food inflation since the rebasing in August 2019, and translates in food being the predominant driver of year-on-year inflation, per the latest inflation figures.
Again, the price level of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 1.5 percent, between February 2020 and March 2020,
“Like last month, this rise is predominantly driven by an increase in price levels of vegetables and fruits and nuts,” the GSS said.
It also cited that transportation has become a less important contributor to inflation.
However, inflation of imported goods was 5.6%, while the inflation of local goods was 8.8% on average, indicating the highest rate of local inflation and the lowest rate of imported goods inflation since the rebasing in August 2019.
Additionally, the data indicates that, inflation for made in Ghana goods has been growing faster than that of the imported goods over the last 5 months.
The differential inflation rate between locally produced items and imported items was 3.3 percentage points.
Regional breakdown of inflation figures
For the regional inflation figures, five regions recorded inflation rates above the national average of 7.8 percent.
The regions are the Volta, Eastern, Western, Greater Accra and Northern Regions.
However, the Volta Region recorded the highest inflation of 9.2 percent.
The Eastern Region followed suit with 8.7 percent, while Western Region, Greater Accra and Northern 8.5, 8.3, 8.1 percent, respectively.
The Upper West Region, on the other hand, had the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 3.7 percent.
However, the Greater Accra Region recorded the lowest regional inflation since the rebasing in August 2019.
