Inflation drops to 9.9% in January

Inflation rate has dropped from the 10.4 percent recorded in December last year to 9.9 percent in January 2021, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.

Speaking to the media in Accra on Wednesday, February 10, Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim noted that Food inflation continues to be higher than non-inflation, year-on-year basis.

He explained that Food inflation, at 12.8 percent, came down compared to last month’s of 14.1 percent though slightly above the average over the last 12 months, 12.3%.

With this rate, Food contributed 57.0 percent to the total inflation. This is still above the average for the last year and a half, but slightly down from last month (59.1%), he said.

Within the Food Division, Vegetables (20.3%) was the subclass with the highest rate of inflation, which is lower than last month (24.2%).

Overall month-on-month Food inflation was 1.2 percent, which is 0.3 percentage point lower than last month, but higher than the average over the last 12 months.

Compared to last December 2020, Fruits and Nuts (-5.1%) saw a decrease in price levels, as did Fish and Other Seafood (-0.2%).

Similar to last month, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco saw a relatively high month-on-month inflation (1.4%).

“Non-Food year-on-year inflation on average was the same as last month (7.7%), which is below the 2020 average (8.5%). Out of the 13 Divisions, five had higher year-on-year inflation in January 2021 than the rolling average over the last 12 months.

“The biggest difference between the average and the current month were recorded for Housing, 2.1 percentage points, and Education services, minus 4.1 percentage points,” he said.

He added: “Average month-on-month, Non-Food inflation was 0.7%. For month-on-month inflation, eight Divisions recorded higher inflation than the 12- month rolling average. At the regional level, a similar trend exists.”