Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician, on Wednesday said the rise in the inflation rate was due to the rise in the non-food and food inflation rates. The year-on-year non-food rate for February was 12.2 per cent compared to 12.0 per cent recorded in in January, this year, while year-on-year food inflation rate for February was 7.2 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent in January.

The year-on-year non-food inflation rate (12.2 per cent) is more than one and half times that of the food inflation rate (7.2 per cent). He said the main drivers for the non-food inflation rate were Transport with the highest rate of 18.9 per cent, Clothing and Footwear 16.8 per cent, Recreation and Culture 13.2 per cent and Miscellaneous goods and services 12.9 per cent.

He said, for the food inflation, Fruits recorded the highest rate with 9.8 per cent, followed by Coffee, tea and cocoa 9.3 per cent, Vegetables 8.7 per cent, Mineral Water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juice 8.3 per cent, Meat and meat product 8.2 per cent and Food products 7.7 per cent. He said the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items was 12.1 percentage points, which was higher than that of the locally produced items that stood at 10.0 percentage points.

At the Regional level, he said four regions – Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Greater Accra and Ashanti – recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 10.6 per cent. Mr Wadieh said Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.7 per cent, followed by Brong Ahafo region with 11.4 per cent.

Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 8.1 per cent.

The CPI measures the change over time in the general price level of good and services that household acquire for the purpose of consumption, with reference to the price level in 2012 as the base year, which has an index of 100.

By Julius K. Satsi/Emmanuel Kwame Donkor, GNA