Ghana could have earned more from rising gold price — Mines Chamber

The Ghana Statistical Service inflation recorded for the month of July rose to 11.4 percent largely on the account of an upward adjustment in transport fares.

However, the usual contributor to inflation especially over the past six months since the pandemic struck, the food and non-alcoholic division, dropped by 0.5 percentage point against the previous month.

The increase in the prices of diesel and petrol in July caused a 3.9 percentage-point jump in transport’s contribution to inflation, its biggest month-on-month contribution since October 2019.

“National year-on-year inflation for July 2020 was 11.4%. The month-on-month inflation rate of 0.5% seems to indicate that prices are increasing at pre-COVID-19 levels. With the exception of fuels, most product categories saw month-on-month inflation rates comparable to the period October 2019 to March 2020, Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Anim told reporters in Accra.

The new figure meant that inflation has risen to its highest since the pandemic struck — also the highest since November 2017 when it was measured at 11.8 percent.

The food and non-alcoholic beverages division recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 13.7 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than in June 2020 (13.8 percent) and 1.4 percentage points lower than May 2020 (15.1 percent).

Although Food declined slightly to contribute 53.0 percent to year-on-year inflation, it remains the predominant driver of year-on-year inflation, despite contiuting less in the last three months.

Non-food inflation edged-up 0.5 percentage point to come in at 9.7 percent compared with the rate in June 2020.