The country for the first time since the outbreak of the corona virus pandemic has recorded a single digit inflation.
Annual inflation rate dropped the lowest in eight months to 9.8 per cent in November from 10.1 per cent October.
The month-on-month inflation between October and November 2020 stood at 0.3 per cent.
The annual inflation rate between January to March this year stood at a single digit of 7.8 per cent before it rose the highest in July at 11.4 per cent and further dropped by 10.1 October and eventually declined to 9.8 per cent in November.
Government Statistician, Professor Samuel K. Annim who announced this at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, when he presented the November Consumer Price Index and Inflation, attributed the drop in the inflation rate to food inflation.
He indicated that food inflation declined from 12.6 per cent in October to 11.7 per cent in November.
In the food division water (0.0 per cent), fruits and vegetable juices (0.2 per cent), cocoa drinks (3.3 per cent), soft drinks (4.2 per cent), coffee and coffee substitutes (4.5 per cent) recorded inflation below the sector average of 11.7 per cent, while fruits and nuts (21.7 per cent), vegetables (19.5 per cent), fish and other sea food (17.5 per cent), tea (14.0 per cent) above the sector average.
“The ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, and Gas’ Division contributed 22.6 per cent to the total inflation,” he said, adding that “This is driven by rent and refuse collection.”
Prof. Annim said non-food Inflation in November stood at 8.3 per cent, which he said was the same as last month and represented month-on-month inflation rate of 0.3 per cent.
For the non-food division, the Government Statistician, among others, mentioned that Insurance and Financial Services (2.1 per cent), Education Services (2.3 per cent), Recreation, Sports and Culture (2.8 per cent) recorded inflation below the sector average of 8.3 per cent and housing, water, electricity and gas (21.0 per cent) and personal care and miscellaneous goods (3.4 per cent) above the sector average.
“Housing recorded the highest month -on – month inflation 0.9 per cent and housing was the only division with a month – month inflation higher than recorded on average Sept 2019 – March 2020 and Apr – Oct 2020,” Prof. Annim said.
“Inflation for locally produced items in November was 11.5 per cent and that of imported items was 5.6 per cent,” he said.
The Government Statistician pointed out that variation between food 11.7 per cent and non-food inflation of 8.3 per cent was 3.4 per cent and the difference between locally produced items of 11.5 per cent and imported items of 5.9 per cent was 7.1 percent.
He said month-on-month (October 2020 – November 2020) food inflation was 0.3 per cent.
Prof. Annim stressed that stark variation continued to exist across regions, and source and type of items.
He said the overall year-on-year regional inflation ranged from 3.4 per cent in the Upper West and Volta regions to 15.2 per cent in Greater Accra.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
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