Prof Samuel Annim
THE NATIONAL year-on-year inflation rate was 12.2% in November 2021, which is 1.2 percentage points higher than the 11.0% recorded in October 2021.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) which made this known said the month-on-month inflation between October and November 2021 was 1.4%.
‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ (20.5%) recorded the highest inflation.
At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 2.7% in the Eastern Region to 17.2% in the Upper West Region. Greater Accra Region recorded the highest month on month inflation (2.0%).
All regions recorded positive month-on-month inflation rates with Upper East region recording the lowest (0.3%).
Prof Samuel Annim, Government Statistician, speaking to journalists in Accra, said inflation hit its highest level since rebasing in August 2019, surpassing rates recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said “This month food inflation (13.1%) is higher than both last month food inflation (11.5%) and the average of the previous 12 months (10.4%).”
He continued that food inflation’s contribution to total inflation increased from 44.9% last month to 47.7% in November. Overall month-on-month food inflation was 2.1%, which is higher than the twelve month national month-on-month rolling average of food inflation (1.0%).
All the fifteen food subclasses recorded positive month-on-month inflation with Vegetables recording the highest (3.8%).
Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again this month compared to last month (from 11.0% to 11.6%). Only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions had the 12 months rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for November 2021.
Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas other fuels recorded the highest inflation this month (20.5%).
Greater Accra region recorded the highest month-on-month inflation for November 2021 (4.4%). Recreation, Sport and Culture, and Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages are the Divisions with higher month-on-month inflation across all the regions.
The inflation for imported goods was 9.8%, higher than the 8.8% recorded for last month while the inflation for locally produced items was 13.0%, up from the 11.8% recorded last month.
BY Samuel Boadi