Inflation drops to 45% in March

Per the latest data, food inflation also stood at 50.8% and Non- food inflation at 40.6%.

Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim during the presentation of the March report said from the regional level, the Western North recorded the highest inflation with 67.3 percent.

The Volta region recorded the least inflation at 25.6 percent.

Month-on-month inflation between February 2023 and March 2023 was -1.2%

The Consumer Price Inflation for March 2023 was 166.6 relative to 114.9 for March 2022 using the linked series.

Definition and measurement of CPI and rate of inflation:

▪CPI measures changes in the price of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by households

▪The assumption is that the basket is purchased each month, hence captures price changes each month

▪The rate of inflation is the relative change in CPI between periods ▪Inflation is reported year-on-year (annual inflation) and month-on-month (monthly inflation), and granulated to determine regional and commodity type and source of inflation

▪CPI does not measure price levels

▪The measures of CPI and inflation are based on the Consumer Price Index Manual: Concepts and Methods ▪Data (market readings) are captured monthly

▪Key variables are prices, quantities and expenditure weights of items ▪Price reference year for the new series is 2021 (2021 = 100)

▪Prices are collected for 47,877 products every month from 16 regions.

▪Price collection is done in 57 markets ▪Prices are collected from about 8,337 outlets.

▪Products are ordered in a hierarchy of 13 Divisions, 44 Groups, 98 Classes, 156 Subclasses and 307 Items.

▪Every Item can only be part of one Subclass, and every Subclass can only be part of one Class, etc.

Disaggregation of March 2023 rate of inflation:

▪Food inflation (0.437) was 50.8%

▪Last month’s Food inflation was 59.1%

▪Month-on-month Food inflation was -0.9%.

▪Non-food Inflation- (0.563) was 40.6%

▪Last month’s Non-Food inflation was 47.9 %

▪Month-on-month Non-Food inflation was -1.5%

▪Inflation for locally produced items was 41.9%

▪Inflation for imported items was 51.6%