According to the Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh, the slight increase in the consumer inflation at 9.9 percent in August, is partly due to the depreciation of the cedi.
This increase from 9.6 percent represents 0.3 percentage point rise in the consumer inflation.
Wadieh said this at a press briefing on the consumer price index for August 2018.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption.
Explaining further, Wadieh added that the slight increase in fuel price during the month also fairly contributed to the change being witnessed for the month of August.
He noted that both food and non-food sub-groups increased during the month.
The Food and non-alcoholic beverages group recorded a year-on-year (y-o-y) inflation rate of 7.9 percent. This is 0.5 percentage point higher than the rate recorded in July 2018.
Five subgroups of the food and non-alcoholic beverages group recorded inflation rates higher than the group’s average rate of 7.9 percent.
The Non-food group recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 10.8 percent in August 2018, compared to the 10.7 percent recorded for July 2018.
In addition, five subgroups recorded year-on-year inflation rates higher than the group’s average rate of 10.8 percent.
Clothing and footwear recorded the highest inflation rate of 15.2 percent, followed by Transport with 15.1 percent, Recreation and culture with 13.9 percent, Furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance with 12.6 percent and Miscellaneous goods and services with 11.9 percent.
The Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels subgroup recorded the lowest inflation of 3.3 percent.
At the regional level, the year-on-year inflation rate ranged from 8.2 percent in Upper East region to 11.8 percent in Upper West region. Five regions (Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Ashanti and Northern) recorded inflation rates above the national average rate of 9.9 percent.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
