The year-on-year inflation rate for March 2019 inched up 9.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous rate of 9.2 percent in February.
Mr David Yenukwa Kombat, the Acting Deputy Government Statistician, at a press briefing in Accra, said the monthly change in March was 1.2 percent, compared to the 1.0 percent recorded in February 2019.
He said the year-on-year non-food inflation was 9.7 percent; same as the rate recorded for February 2019.
The year-on-year food inflation rate is up to 8.4 percent compared to the 8.1 percent recorded in February 2019.
“The
year-on-year non-food inflation rate (9.7 percent) is 1.3 percentage
points higher than the food inflation rate (8.4 percent),” he stated.
He
said the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items (11.1 percent)
was 2.6 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items
(8.5 percent).
Mr Kombat said the main “price drivers” for the
non-food inflation rate were recreation and culture 14.1 percent,
Transport 13.7 percent, clothing and footwear 13.3 percent, and
furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance 12.2 percent.
He
said the “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were; coffee, tea
and cocoa 13.0 percent, mineral water, soft drinks, fruits and vegetable
juices 11.1 percent, fruits 10.2 percent and meat as well as meat
products 9.1 percent.
Four regions Upper West, Brong Ahafo,
Western and Ashanti recorded inflation rates above the national average
and Volta region recorded the same inflation rate as the national
average of 9.3 percent, he stated.
The Upper West region he said, recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.4 percent, followed by Brong Ahafo 10.2 percent, while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 7.9 percent in March 2019.
Source: GNA
