Inflation for May 2024 declined to 23.1% from the 25.0% recorded in the previous month.
This represents a decrease of 1.95 percentage points from that of April 2024.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), food inflation declined by 4.2% to 22.6%, while non-food inflation increased to 23.6%.
Vegetables, tubers and plantains recorded the highest contribution of 3.6% percentage points to the food inflation’s 22.6%.
This was followed by ready-made food and fish and other seafood, which were the next food sub-classes with the highest contribution to food inflation.
Speaking to journalists in Accra on June 12, Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim urged policymakers to focus on transportation, which recorded month-on-month inflation of 10.5%, rather than on food inflation as a primary driver of inflation.
“In this case what I want the media and policymakers to engage is not food inflation but in this case, transport where we are seeing month-on-month transport inflation of 10.5% when overall month-on-month is 3.2% and we all do appreciate how transport permits across the other items that we have in the basket for the competition.
“So the conversation that I really wish will be on the table going forward is how do we ensure that the consistent but slow increases in prices of food at other points would slow down and possibly see reduction going forward.”
The Upper East region recorded the highest regional inflation rate at 35.6%. This represents more than 3 times that of the Oti region (the region with the lowest Inflation), with 10.3% inflation for the month of May 2024.