Statistical Service Releases Inflation for April 2019

By Chantal Aidoo

The year- on- year inflation rate for the month of April was 9.5 percent as compared to 9.3 percent recorded for the month of March.

The monthly change rate in April 2019 was 1.1 percent compared to the 1.2 percent recorded for March 2019.

Briefing the media at a news conference in Accra, Wednesday, the Ag. Deputy Government Statistician, Mr. David Kombat, said the year- on - year non-food inflation rate for April 2019 was 10.4 percent as compared to 9.7 percent recorded for the month of March 2019.

According to him, this was 0.7 percent points higher than the food inflation rate since the year-on-year food inflation rate for April 2019 was 7.3 percent as compared to 8.4 percent recorded in March 2019.

He observed that the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items being 11.0 percent was 2.2 percent points higher than that of locally produced items of 8.8 percent.

For the main price drivers for non-food inflation, Mr. Kombat indicated could be attributed to clothing and footwear which were rated 14.3 percent, recreation and culture, 14.1 percent, transport 13.2 percent, furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance 12.8 percent and miscellaneous good and services 10.0 percent.

For the food inflation rate, the main drivers were coffee, tea and cocoa, which were rated 13.7 percent, mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices at 9.5 percent, fruits 10.4 percent, meat and meat products at 8.3 percent and vegetables 7.5 percent.

Touching on the regions, the Ag Deputy Government Statistician said four regions being the Upper West, Bono, Western and Ashanti recorded inflation rates above the national average of 9.5 percent.

'Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.5 percent followed by Bono region 10.7 percent, while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 8.0 percent in April 2019,' he added.

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