Samuel Annim
The Country’s 2022 Year-on-year inflation increased for each successive month and peaked at 54.1 per cent in December 2022 says the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
Presenting the 2022 Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) review, the GSS indicated that inflation increased from 13.9 per cent in January to 54.1 per cent.
According to the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Annim, between January and December the change in the overall year-on-year inflation rate was 40.2 per cent points.
Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance is the division that recorded the largest increase in the course of the year with 60.5 percent points which is about 1.5 times the size of the increase in the overall inflation rate, the GSS said.
“Transport followed with 54.0 per cent, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels with 53.6 per cent points recorded the second and third largest increases between January and December respectively.”
A release by the GSS indicated that three divisions recorded the highest inflation rates, the exceptions were the first four months of the year when food non-alcoholic beverage ranked in the top three at 3.3 per cent points from 44.2 per cent to 47.5 per cen; followed by household equipment and maintenance with 1.6 per cent from 2.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent; housing, water, electricity, and gas with -6.4 per cent points recorded the largest decrease in the contribution to inflation from 22.1 per cent to 15.7 per cent.
In the 2022 review it indicated that the food inflation was higher than the non-food for all months of the year, the widest gap between food and non-food inflation was recorded in December 9.8 per cent and the lowest in January with 0.4 per cent. Similarly inflation on imported items overtook that on locally produce items in April and remained higher for the rest of the year.
“The widest gap between inflation on imported and locally produced items was recorded in December at 10.8 per cent and the lowest in May at 0.9 per cent points,” the review stated.
For the month-on-month, the inflation fluctuated in 2022 peaking at 8.6 per cent in November and was lowest at 1.9 per cent in August, it said.
Giving a regional breakdown on the year on year inflation, the GSS indicated that Volta region had the lowest overall rates of inflation in three out four months when inflation rates were available for all 16 regions.
The Eastern Region had the highest overall inflation rates from September to November and was overtaken by the Greater Accra Region in December.
However, the GSS indicated that the CPI in Ghana reached record-breaking levels in 2022. In response the government is deploying multiple measures to reverse the increasing average changes in the general prices of food goods and services.
By Hudda Bala Abdul Manan