Ghana’s inflation for January 2023 has dropped marginally to 53.6% from the 54.1% recorded in December 2022.
This drop would be the first in 19 months since inflation started rising constantly since May 2021.
However, on a month-on-month basis, prices of good between December 2022 and January 2023 rose by some 1.7%. Eastern rgion recorded the highest inflation of 66% while the volta region recorded the lowest inflation.
Addressing the media, the Ghana Statistical Service explained that “Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of January 2023 stood at 165.6% relative to 107.8% for the month of January 2022. Relatively we are comparing inflation prices of 165.6 to 107.8. The inflation rate for January 2023 has gone up by 53.6% relative to January 2022. Comparing this to the rate we recorded in December 2022 which inflation stood at 54.1% means a decline of 0.25% on the year-on-year inflation for December 2022 relative to January 2023.
“This is the first time that in 19 months continuous upward increase in prices of goods and services has seen a reversal with a decline of 0.5 percentage point. A month-on-month basis that is between December 2022 and January 2023, prices of goods and services went up by 1.7%. This is because CPI for the month of January 2023 stood at 165.6% relative to December 2022 107.8%. Prices of goods and services from December 2022 and January 2023 went up by 1.7%. Disaggregating this are the two majors between food and non-food inflation and between locally produced items and imported items. We saw a variation of 61.0% for food inflation relative to non-food inflation of 47.9%.
“It indicates 13.1% point difference between food inflation to food inflation 61.0% and non-food inflation 47.9%. You see a reverse pattern between food and non-food inflation. One, we saw a rise of food inflation from 57.9% to 61.0% as non-food inflation for the month of December 2022 stood at 47.9% reducing by 2 percentage points in January 2023.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Bernice Mensah
