This is the lowest inflation rate since December 2013.

The monthly change rate in the May 2017 inflation was 0.7 per cent  while that of April 2017 was 1.6 per cent.

Inflation rate measures the average rise in the prices of all consumer goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption.

Factors

The acting Government Statistician, Mr Baah Wadieh, who disclosed this at a news conference in Accra last Wednesday said the major contributory factor was the slight reduction in fuel prices during the period under review.

Other factors were the combined effect of the food and non-food inflation rate changes within the period.

“There was a general decline in prices for almost all the major subgroups.  A significant driver is the price of fuel which recorded a slight decline in price and inflation and that might have triggered so many of the groups to reduce the inflation rate,” he said.

The year-on-year food inflation rate for May 2017 was 6.3 per cent, compared to the 6.7 per cent recorded in April 2017.

However, the year-on-year non-food inflation rate (15.8 per cent) is more than two times that of the food inflation rate (6.3 per cent) and is more than two times that of the food inflation rate.

“In May 2017, the year-on-year inflation rate for imported items (14.5 per cent) was 2.7 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items (11.8 per cent). 

“The main price drivers for the non-food inflation rate were transport (23.6 per cent), recreation and culture (21.4 per cent), furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance (20.7 per cent), clothing and footwear (16.5 per cent) and miscellaneous goods and services (16.4 per cent),” he said.

Mr Wadieh added that five regions (Greater  Accra, Upper West, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Western) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average.