Inflation rises to 11.3% in May 2020 as food prices continue to go up

The continuous rise in prices of food items pushed Ghana’s inflation up to 11.3% in May 2020.

This means that between May 2019 and the same period in 2020, the prices of items have increased by 11.3%.

This figure is also 1.7 percentage points higher compared to the 10.6% inflation recorded in April 2020.

The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, explained that the rise has also been triggered by the increase in food prices before and during the partial lock-down period which spanned for three weeks in April.

He however indicated that there has been a marginal decline in the contribution of food prices to the overall inflation figure.

“In terms of contribution to year on year inflation, we see food as the major contributor, contributing about 56 percentage points. In April 2020, we saw food inflation contributing close to 60%, so the contribution of food has slowed down in May 2020,” he told journalists at a meeting to announce the inflation figures.

Prof. Annim added that, “Although food continues to dominate in terms of its contribution, between April and May 2020, we see a slight drop. At the dis-aggregated level, we see food inflation recording a 15.1% rate of inflation relative to the 11.3% rate of inflation that we recorded for both food and non-food inflation.”

Though the Ghana Statistical Service is yet to complete processes to include the six new regions in its inflation calculation, Professor Kobina Annim explained to Citi Business News that should least impact the national inflation figures going forward.

Providing the regional breakdown for the inflation figures for May, he said the Greater Accra Region recorded the highest inflation of 13.3%, while the Upper East Region recorded the least inflation of 3.1%.

“At the aggregate level we see Greater Accra because of the contribution of non-food inflation having a higher inflation relative to Ashanti and Western Regions,” he further indicated.