Acting Government Statistician, Mr. David Kombat has announced the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2019.
The CPI rose up slightly to 0.2 percent point over the 9.0 percent recorded in January 2019. The year-on-year inflation rate measured was 9.2 percent.
The monthly change rate in February 2019 was 1.0 percent the same as the rate recorded in January 2019.
The Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate at 11.4 percent, followed by Brong Ahafo Region with 10.2 percent, while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate with 7.9 percent for February.
Cost advanced faster for hotels, cafes and restaurants (6.7 percent vs 6.3 percent); communication (5.2 percent vs 5.1 percent) and alcoholic beverages & tobacco (8.3 percent vs 7.6 percent).
The main price driver for the non-food inflation rate were clothing and footwear (13.3 percent), Recreation and Culture (13.2 percent), Transport (12.8 percent), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (11.6 percent) and Miscellaneous goods and services (10.0 percent).
Mr. Kombat explained the depreciation of the cedi did not factor into the calculation adding the year-on-year non-food inflation rate for February 2019 was 9.7 percent compared with January’s 9.5 percent rate.
Four regions – Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western and Ashanti – recorded inflation rates above the national average; but the Volta Region recorded the same inflation rate as the national average of 9.2 percent.
The CPI measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption, with reference to the price level in 2012, the base year, which has an index of 100.
Inflation Rate in Ghana averaged 16.49 percent from 1998 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of 63 percent in March of 2001 and a record low of 0.40 percent in May of 1999.
By Michael Eli Dokosi/goldstreetbusiness.com