June inflation rises to 15 percent

The year-on-year inflation rate for June rose to 15 per cent up from the 14.8 per cent recorded in May 2014, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday. The monthly change rate in June 2014 was 1.6 per cent compared with the 0.9 per cent recorded in May.

Dr Philomena Nyarko, Government Statistician, said the year-on-year non-food inflation rate for June was 20.3 per cent compared to the 20 per cent recorded for May. The year-on-year food inflation rate for June was 7.9 per cent, a fall of 0.1 percentage point from the 8 per cent recorded for May.

“The year-on-year non-food inflation rate of 20.3 per cent is more than two and half times higher than the food inflation rate (7.9%). According to Dr Nyarko, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items during June was 19.1 per cent is about one and half times higher than the inflation rate for locally produced items 13.5 per cent.

The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which was at 53.6 per cent and Transport at 24.6 per cent. The “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit juices, Coffee, tea and cocoa, Milk, cheese and eggs, Food products, Sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionery.

The Upper East Region recorded the highest regional year-on-year inflation rate of 18.3 per cent while the Volta Region recorded the lowest at 13.1 per cent. Six regions (Upper East, Northern, Central, Western, Eastern and Greater Accra) recorded inflation rates above the national average of 15.0 per cent.