Prof Samuel Annim, Gov’t Statistician)
The year-on-year rate of inflation slowed down for the fourth consecutive month after COVID-19, leading to a single digit for November 2020.
Thus inflation recorded 9.8% in November 2020 compared to November 2019, while month-on-month (i.e. October 2020 – November 2020) it was 0.3%.
Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Annim, who made this known in a release issued recently, said the variation between Food (11.7%) and Non-Food inflation (8.3%) was 3.4%; while the difference between locally produced items (11.5%) and imported items (5.9%) was 7.1%. Month-on-month (October 2020 – November 2020) Food inflation was 0.3%.
This is lower than the revised inflation target of about 11 per cent announced in the 2020 mid-year budget statement even though it falls within the medium-term inflation target of 8.0±2 per cent.
Prof Annim said food still was the predominant driver, while the “Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas Division contributed 22.6% to the total inflation,”
“Food contributed 53.0% to the total inflation and thus was still the predominant driver of year-on-year inflation. Within the Food Division, Fruits and Nuts (21.7%) was the subclass with the highest rates of inflation followed by Vegetables (19.5%). Even though Vegetable inflation is still higher than average food inflation and overall inflation, it was 5.4 percentage points lower this month compared to last month (24.9%). Overall month-on-month Food inflation was 0.3%, with negative (-1.6%) inflation for the Fruits and Nuts Subclass,” he said.
At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 3.4% in the Upper West and Volta Regions to 15.2% in Greater Accra. Greater Accra is the only Region that recorded Food inflation rate over eight per cent (13.7%).
In Greater Accra the difference between Food (13.7%) and Non-Food (16.2%) inflation was just 2.5 percentage points, while in Ashanti Region this difference was 9.4 percentage points (5.7% compared to 15.1%). Upper West Region was the only region where Non-Food inflation was higher than food inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, Upper West Region recorded the highest inflation (2.3%) and Central Region the lowest (-0.7%).
Again, Upper West Region also recorded the highest month-on-month Food inflation (3.9%).
BY Samuel Boadi