The Ghana Statistical Service reported on Wednesday that year-over-year inflation in Ghana increased to 42.2% in May from 41.28% in April.
This implies that the general price level in May 2023 will be 42.2 percent higher than in May 2022, according to government statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, who spoke at a media briefing in Kumasi on Wednesday.
The spike in food inflation during that time, which rose from 48.7% in April to 51.8% in May—the highest overall contribution to the national inflation rate in 17 months—was what he attributed to the increase.
“Since January 2022, food inflation has increased at a rate of 6%, reaching its peak in January 2023. The rate of food inflation in January 2022 was 13.7%; this is more than three times that, according to Prof. Annim.
He added: “Since January 2023, we saw a continuous slowdown in food inflation, decreasing from 59.1 percent to 50 percent to 48.7 percent for April 2023.” The Government Statistician said that the decline in food inflation was reversed in May 2023 with an upward increase of up to 51.8 percent.”
While this was happening, non-food inflation fell from 35.4 percent in April 2023 to 34.6 percent in May 2023.
When the May 2023 inflation rate was broken down, it was found that locally produced goods experienced inflation of 36.2% while imported goods experienced inflation of 43.8%.
On a divisional basis, housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels had an inflation rate of 54%, which was followed by furnishing and household equipment with a 57.8% year-over-year inflation rate.
Personal care, social security, and other services saw year-over-year inflation of 53.4%, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages at 51.8% and alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and illegal drugs at 42.1%.
The five sectors with the lowest inflation rates were leisure and culture, 5.9 percent, education, 10.2 percent, information and communication, 16.1 percent, insurance, and financial services, and 5.9 percent for restaurants and lodging.
Regionally, the Greater Accra region in Ghana contributed the most to overall national inflation with a rate of 24.6%, followed by the Ashanti region with a rate of 17.2%, the Eastern region with a rate of 12.6%, and the Central region with a rate of 10.2%.
Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Eastern together recorded an inflation rate of 64.4%, which was higher than the overall inflation rate across all 16 regions.
The 12 additional regions all experienced inflation rates of less than 10%, and five of them—Oti, Upper West, Ahafo, Savannah, and North East—contributed less than 2% of the country’s overall inflation rate.