Ghana’s Consumer Price Index for February increases to 9.2%

The year-on-year inflation for February 2019 increased by 0.2%.
The monthly change rate in February 2019 was 1.0% which is the same as what was recorded in January 2019.
The Consumer Price Index measures the price level of goods and services required by households.

Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rate regarding the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February 2019 has increased to 9.2%.

This is a 0.2% increase from the 9.0% CPI recorded in January 2019.

The CPI measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption, with reference to the price level in 2012, the base year, which has an index of 100.

The Acting Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat also indicated that the monthly change rate in February 2019 was 1.0% which is the same as what was recorded in January 2019.

He stated that the year-on-year non-food inflation rate for February 2019 was 9.7% which is an increase in the rate of 9.5% recorded in January 2019.

The year-on-year food inflation rate for February 2019 was 8.1 percent. In January 2019, food inflation was 8.0 percent.

Also, the year-on-year inflation rate in February 2019, for imported items was 10.6%. This is a 2.0 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items (8.6%).

“The main ‘price drivers’ for the non-food inflation rate were Clothing and footwear (13.3%), Recreation and Culture(13.2%), Transport (12.8%), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (11.6%) and Miscellaneous goods and services (10.0%),” Mr Kombat said.

He added that “the ‘price drivers’ for the food inflation rate were Coffee, tea and cocoa (11.6%), Fruits (10.0%), Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices (9.9%) and Meat and meat products (9.1%).”

Meanwhile, the Volta region recorded the same inflation rate as the national average of 9.2 percent.

In a related development, four regions namely Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western and Ashanti recorded inflation rates above the national average.

Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.4 percent, followed by Brong Ahafo Region (10.2%), while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate (7.9%) in February 2019.