Imported goods recorded 4.7% inflation

The inflation of imported goods was 4.7%, while the inflation of local goods was 13.9% on average, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has announced.

The GSS said in a statement on Wednesday that the month-on-month inflation for imported goods was 0.7%, while month-on-month inflation for local goods was 1.1%.

Both of these percentages are lower than the corresponding numbers last month (0.8% for imported and 2.1% for locally produced goods).

The main contributor to local inflation was the inflation of locally produced foods.

Meanwhile, the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Division recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 13.8%.

According to the GSS, this is 1.3 percentage points lower than May 2020 (15.1%), but 5.9 percentage points higher than the average over the eight months preceding March 2020 (7.9%).

Within the Food Division, Vegetables (28.8%) and Fruits and Nuts (17.4% ) were the Subclasses with the highest rates of inflation (see Figure 4). Month-on-month the inflation for Fruits and Nuts stood at 3.0% while Vegetables recorded a negative inflation of -2.1%.

As Food contributed 54.4% to year-on-year inflation, it is still the predominant driver of year-on-year inflation, but it contributed less than the previous two months.

Month-on-month Food inflation was 0.1%, which is less than the overall month-on-month inflation and the month-on-month Food inflation in May (2.3%) and April 2020 (6.4%).

Non-food inflation came in at 9.2%, which is higher than the 8.4% measured in May 2020. Like last month, the Division with the highest month-on-month inflation was Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas (5.4%).

Compared to earlier months, Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas (20%) also contributed more to year-on-year inflation. This is driven by an increase in Rent prices and inflation for refuse collection

The Non-Food Subclasses with the lowest inflation were Fuels and Lubricants for Personal Transport Equipment (-13.5%), Electricity (-35.6%) and Electric Appliances for Personal Care (-66.9%).

The national average rate recorded 11.2% in June.