INFLATION RECORDS 11.0% IN OCTOBER THIS YEAR

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistican

The year-on-year inflation rate was 11.0% in October 2021, which is 0.4 percentage point higher than the 10.6% recorded in September 2021 due to the increases in prices associated with housing, water, electricity and transportation across the country.

The Government Statistican Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, at the Consumers Price Index (CPI) press conference yesterday , said month-on-month inflation between September and October 2021 was 0.6% (same as what was recorded in September 2021) hence October inflation rate was the highest in the last 15 months.

Prof. Annim also noted that , the 11% we’ve recorded is the highest in the last 15 months. This indicates that as a country the last time we hit the 11 range of rate inflation was during the COVID-19 period especially during the months of May, June and July 2020 where inflation rates stood at 11.3%, 11.2% and 11.4% respectively.

“Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (20.6%) drove the inflation rate for October”, he said.

At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 1.9% in the Eastern Region to 19.2% in the Upper West Region. Upper East Region recorded the highest month on month inflation (1.8%).

Three regions (Greater Accra, Upper West and Eastern) recorded negative month-on-month inflation rates.

He noted that, the month-on- Food inflation (11.0%) was lower than both last month inflation (11.5%) and the average of the previous 12 months (10.3%).

Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation further dropped from 48.6% last month to 44.9% in October. Overall month-on-month food inflation was -0.3%, lower than the twelve month national average of month-on-month inflation.

Vegetables, and fruits and nuts were the subclasses that recorded negative month-on-month inflation.

Thirteen out of the fifteen food sub-classes recorded positive year-on-year inflation of max 17.2%.

Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again this month compared to last month (from 9.9% to 11.0%). Out of the 12 non-food divisions, ten had higher year-on-year inflation in October 2021 than the rolling average over the last 12 months.

He stated that, Transport, which included fuel, once again recorded the highest difference of 5.2 percentage points between October 2021 of 14.9 percent inflation compared to the twelve- month rolling average of 9.7percent.

Upper East region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation for October 2021 (1.8%). Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics, and Transport are the Divisions with higher month-on-month inflation across all the regions.

The inflation for imported goods was 8.8% (higher than the 8.1% recorded for last month) while the inflation for locally produced items was 11.8% (up from the 11.5% recorded last month).