Inflation hits 15 months high of 11% in October 2021

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) have stated that increases in prices associated with housing, water, electricity and transport across the country have pushed year-on-year inflation for October 2021 to 11 %.

The rate of inflation for the month of October is the highest in the last 15 months.

According to that data from the GSS, the last time the rate of inflation breached the 11 % mark was in July of 2020, when the inflation rate stood at 11.4 %.

The 11 % year-on-year inflation rate recorded for October, represents the 5th consecutive time the inflation rate has risen since May, 2021, and the 3rd time this year that the rate has risen above the Bank of Ghana’s targeted band of 8 +/- 2 %.

Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim noted that the latest rate of inflation recorded compares only to the inflation rate recorded at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The 11 % we’ve recorded is the highest in the last 15 months. This indicates that as a country the last time we hit the 11 range of rate inflation was during the COVID-19 era specifically during the months of May, June and July last year where respectively inflation rates stood at 11.3 %, 11.2 % and 11.4 %.”

Food and Non-Food Inflation

This month food inflation (11.0%) was lower than both last month inflation (11.5%) and the average of the previous 12 months (10.3%). Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation further dropped from 48.6% last month to 44.9% in October (see Figure 6). Overall month-on-month food inflation was -0.3%, which is lower than the twelve-month national average of month-on-month inflation. Vegetables and fruits and nuts were the subclasses that recorded negative month-on-month inflation (see figure 4). Thirteen out of the fifteen food sub-classes recorded positive year-on-year inflation of max 17.2%.

Non-food year-on-year inflation on average went up again this month compared to last month (from 9.9% to 11.0%). Out of the 12 Non-food Divisions, ten had higher year-on-year inflation in October 2021 than the rolling average over the last 12 months. Transport once again recorded the biggest difference in this month’s inflation compared to the twelve-month rolling average (14.9% compared to 9.7%) (See Figure 1). Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas recorded the highest inflation this month (20.6%).

Regional Inflation

At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 1.9% in the Eastern Region to 19.2% in the Upper West Region. Upper East Region recorded the highest month on month inflation (1.8%). Three regions (Greater Accra, Upper West and Eastern) recorded negative month-on-month inflation rates.