Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician, on Wednesday, presenting the CPI for July 2018 noted that, the monthly change rate in July 2018 was 0.4 per cent, compared with the rate of one per cent recorded in June 2018. 

The year-on-year non-food inflation rate for July 2018 was 10.7 per cent compared with the rate of 11.2 per cent recorded in June 2018. The year-on-year food inflation rate for July 2018 was 7.4 per cent, compared with 7.3 per cent recorded in June 2018.

The year-on-year non-food inflation rate (10.7 per cent) is almost one and half times that of the food inflation rate (7.4 per cent).

In July 2018, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items was 11.5 per cent, which is 2.7 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items at 8.8 per cent. The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were Clothing and footwear (15.4 per cent), Transport (15.0 per cent), Recreation and Culture (13.4 per cent), Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (12.5 per cent) and miscellaneous goods and services (12.0 per cent).

The “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were Coffee, tea and cocoa (11.3%), Fruits (9.7 per cent), Meat and meat products (8.6 per cent), Mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices (8.4 per cent), Vegetables (8.4 per cent) and Food products (7.7 per cent).

Five regions (Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Ashanti and Northern) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 9.6 per cent.    Upper West region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 11.5 per cent, followed by Brong Ahafo region (10.5 per cent), while the Upper East region recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation (7.8 per cent) in July 2018.