Inflation Records 12.6%

Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim – Government Statistician

THE NATIONAL year-on-year inflation rate was 12.6% in December 2021, 0.4 percentage point higher than the 12.2% recorded in November 2021.

Prof Samuel Annim, Government Statistician, who made this known to the media in Accra, said month-on-month inflation between November and December 2021 was 1.2%.

According to him, “For the sixth month in row, year-on-year consumer inflation has consistently increased, going up by 4.8 percentage points between June 2021 (7.8%) and December 2021 (12.6%)”.

’Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ (20.7%) recorded the highest inflation.

At the regional level, he said the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 7.4% in the Eastern Region to 18.6% in the Upper West Region.

Eastern Region thus recorded the highest month-on-month inflation (4.8%).

All regions recorded positive month-on-month inflation rates with Upper East region recording the lowest (0.1%).

“This month food inflation (12.8%) is higher than last month food inflation (13.1%) but lower than the average of the previous 12 months (10.3%). Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation decreased from 47.7% in November to 45.2% in December.

“Overall month-on-month food inflation was 1.2%, which is higher than the twelve month national month-on-month rolling average of food inflation (1.0%).”

Fourteen out of the fifteen food subclasses recorded positive month-on-month inflation with Coffee and Coffee substitutes recording a deflation (-0.3%). Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again in December compared to November (from 11.6% to 12.5%). Two out of the 12 Non-food Divisions had the 12 months rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for December 2021. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels recorded the highest inflation in December 2021 (20.7%).

The inflation for imported goods was 10.4% (higher than the 9.8% recorded for November) while the inflation for locally produced items was 13.3% (up from the 13.0% recorded in November 2021).

BY Samuel Boadi

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