Prof Samuel Annim, Govt Statistician
THE NATIONAL 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.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) which disclosed his in its latest release, said month-on-month inflation between September and October 2021 was 0.6% (same as what was recorded in September 2021).
‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ (20.6%) recorded the highest inflation.
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.
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.
Transport once again recorded the biggest difference in this month’s inflation compared to the twelve- month rolling average (14.9% compared to 9.7%).
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).
A business desk report