Inflation Rates: Highest In Upper, Lowest In CR

The Upper East and West regions recorded the highest inflation rate of 16.5 per cent for February based on the new Consumer Price Index, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.

The Central Region posted the lowest rate of 7.9 per cent.

The Brong-Ahafo recorded the second highest rate of 13.8 per cent, followed by Greater Accra and Western Regions with 12.1 and 10.9 per cent respectively.

The Volta and Ashanti regions each recorded an inflation rate of 8.8 per cent with the Northern and Eastern Regions each recording 8.6 per cent.

The overall national rate of inflation for the period was 10.4 per cent, representing a marginal decline of 0.5 per cent from the January figure of 10.9 per cent.

Inflation is an increase in the price of a basket of goods and services while Consumer Price Index is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed basket of market goods and services purchased by consumers.

The new CPI series moves the base year from September 1997 to the average prices of 2002 and also revises the weights on the various items in the basket of goods to reflect current expenditure pattern.

Professor Nicholas Nuamah-Nsowah, Acting Government Statistician, told a press briefing in Accra that the national CPI for February was 208.62 with respect to the 2002 base year.

It is this index when compared with that of February 2006 (188.94) that gives the point-to-point inflation rate of 10.4 per cent.

He said the monthly change/rate of inflation, which is the CPI of February 2007, compared with that of the previous month January gave a figure of 1.2 per cent.

Prof. Nuamah-Nsowah noted that the national CPI increased by 2.55 points from 206.08 in January to 208.62 in February with food and beverages group contributing 1.14 percentage points while the non-food groups altogether contributed 1.41 percentage points to the change in the national index.

He said the food and beverages group, vegetables, potatoes and other tubers had the highest (0.42) points upward effect followed by fruits with 0.30 points while cheese and eggs group had the lowest negative effect (-0.05 points). Within the non-food group, cafes and restaurants contributed the highest upward movement of the index with 0.68 points followed by health group with 0.33 points.