Inflation drops marginally in July

Accra, Aug 14, GNA - Ghana's annual inflation rate dropped marginally to 20.50 per cent in July, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Friday.

The drop represents 0.24 over the annual inflation rate of 20.74 per cent registered in June.

The inflation for the non-food group was 24.48 per cent as against 15.17 per cent for the food group in July while figures of the non-food and food groups were 24.66 and 15.54 per cent respectively for June.

Prof Nicholas Nsowah Nuamah, Deputy Government Statistician who announced the figures in Accra, said the fall was as a result of a slight drop in the prices of certain food items in the urban areas making the urban inflation to be lower than the rural inflation which recorded increase in food components.

Prof Nsowah Nuamah said the trend of the figures which showed an increase in non-food component was indicative of an improvement on the lifestyle of people making them to spend more on non-food items. On the outlook for the August, he said, trends from 2006 to 2008 indicate that August, September and October are usually periods of declining inflation but could not tell whether the pattern would repeat itself.

"Since this period is the harvesting season, all things being equal, it is likely that the inflation rate for those months would fall," he added. 14 Aug. 09