Headline inflation recorded for the month of December, 2020, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is 10.4 per cent.
The recorded inflation rate for end-December 2020 represents a 0.6 percentage points increment from the previous 9.8 per cent inflation figure recorded for November 2020.
Month-on-month inflation between November 2020 and December 2020, the GSS notes was 0.9 per cent.
Two of the thirteen divisions – Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages – used the measurement of the national inflation rate, the GSS also notes had higher than average inflation rate of 9.9 per cent.
Inflation rate for Housing, Water, Electricity and Gas fell from 21 per cent in November to 20.1 per cent in Decmber. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages however, went up from 11.7 per cent in November to 14.1 per cent in December 2020.
Regional Inflation
At the regional level, the Greater Accra Region recorded the highest inflation rate with inflation peaking at 16.3 per cent.
The Upper West on the other hand, recorded the least inflation rate of 2.1 per cent.
Compared to last month, only Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Upper West Region had a lower food inflation this month. The biggest difference was recorded in Central Region; 3.5 per cent to 12.8 per cent.
The Nothern Region recorded the highest overall inflation (1.7 per cent) and Food inflation (3.1 per cent) on a month-on-month basis.
Food and Non-Food Inflation
Food contributed 59.1 per cent to total inflation, the highest contribution recorded since April 2020 when COVID-19 started to affect Ghana.
The increased rate of food inflation, the GSS says is the predominant reason for increased overall inflation, as without the increase, year-on-year inflation would have been lower than November.
Within the Food Division, Vegetables – 24.2 per cent – was the subclass with the highest rate of inflation, followed by Fish and other Seafood – 22.9 per cent.
Overall month-on-month Food inflation was 1.5 per cent, 1.2 percentage points higher than last month’s.
Non-Food inflation saw a relatively high month-on-month inflation of 0.9 per cent.
In contrast to Food inflation, Non-Food inflation decreased, from to 7.7 per cent in December as compared to the 8.3 per cent recorded in November.
Month-on-month Non-Food inflation was 0.4 per cent.
