Inflation rate drops to 12.8%

Inflation rate for March is 12.8 per cent, a drop from the 13.2 per cent recorded in February, the government statistician Baah Wadieh has announced.

The major determinants for the non-food component were recreation and culture, furnishings, household equipment, and routine maintenance, clothing and footwear, education and health.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday April 12, Mr Wadieh said: “Because of the removal of subsidies from petroleum products, electricity and water, the prices of these items went up in 2016 which led to the rise in inflation. After the major deregulation exercise in early 2016, there have not been any major adjustments in prices.

“So, what is happening is that most of these increases have run almost a twelve-month cycle and their effects are easing out and that is what we have been witnessing in the inflation rate particularly this year.”