Ghana’s Inflation Rate Rises Steeply to 19.4%

Ghana’s Inflation Rate Rises Steeply to 19.4%

Ghana’s consumer price inflation accelerated to 19.4% year-on-year in March from 15.7% the previous month, the statistics service said on Wednesday, a record since inflation figures were rebased in 2018.

The West African nation’s latest inflation reading raced far outside the government’s targeted band of 8% plus or minus 2%.

Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim said the figures reflected the impact of the war in Ukraine on global commodity prices.

Transport, which includes fuel prices, saw the largest increase in March, up 27.6% from the previous month. Food was up 22.4%, driven by cooking oil, water and cereal products, while housing prices surged by 21.4%.

Inflation is “now trending on fuel and food,” Annim told a press conference in the capital Accra. “It is clear the war is having an impact on these two items.”

Ghana imports nearly a quarter of its wheat supplies from Russia, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

The country’s central bank raised its main lending rate by a record 250 basis points last month to stem rampant inflation threatening to plunge one of West Africa’s largest economies into crisis.

The government also announced a flurry of spending cuts to tackle inflation, reduce the deficit, restore a depreciating local currency and reassure spooked investors.# Ghana’s Inflation Rate Rises Steeply to 19.4%

READ: Ghana’s External Deficits Account Estimated to 4.4% of GDP