Ghana’s inflation rate hits 23.6 %, highest in 18 years

The rate of inflation for April 2022 rose to 23.6% from the previous month’s 19.4 per cent – the highest in more than 18 years. It represents a 4.2% jump.

The last time Ghana’s rate of inflation hit that high was in January 2004 at 28.95%.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said Transport, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels recorded inflation rates above the national average of 23.6% with Transport (33.5%) recording the highest inflation.

The Central region maintained its position as the first of 16 regions with an overall year-on-year inflation rate of 26.7%.

The Upper East Region recorded the lowest change in prices with a rate of 18.24%.

Although Food inflation (26.6%) was higher than the March 2022 figure of 22.4%, its contribution to total inflation, however, decreased from 51.4% in March 2022 to 50.0% in April 2022.

Non-Food Prices jumped 4.3% in the month to 21.3% with only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions having the 12-month rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for April 2022.

Government Statistician Samuel Annim told journalists on Wednesday, 11 May 2022: “As was indicated, this is the first time that imported inflation (24.7%) has, in the last 29 months, recorded inflation rate surpassing domestic inflation (23.0%) with a difference of 1.7 percentage points”.

“This was as a result of the increase of about 7.4 percentage points for imported inflation between the month of March & April 2022, and about 3 percentage points from the perspective of the domestic inflation, jumping from 20.0% in March 2022 to 23.0% in April 2022”, Prof Annim said.