Ghana's inflation rate has seen a drop well beyond the target forecast by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The BoG has set the end of year (2023) inflation target at 29% but the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced that the country's inflation rate dropped to 23.2% in December last year, the fifth consecutive decrease since August 2023.

The GSS attributed the decline in food inflation which fell to 28.7% in December 2023 as compared to the 32.2% figure recorded in November 2023.

For non-food inflation, the figure dropped to 18.7% in December 2023 from 21.7% in November 2023.

Inflation for locally produced items was 23.8% while that for imported items was 21.9% in December 2023.

Prof Samuel Kobina Annin, the government statistician, said at a monthly briefing that the slower inflation in December was due to the declining food and non-food inflation rates.

"Compared to November, food inflation declined by 3.5 percentage points to 28.7 % in December, while non-food inflation declined by 3.0 percentage points to 18.7 %", he noted.

The sustained drop in inflation since August 2023 can largely be attributed to the efforts and measures taken by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to arrest inflation and restore macro-economic stability.

Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison had observed that inflation was trending downwards and noted that “as we continue to make progress on that front, we expect interest rates to correct and then the interest rates would also be moving in the right direction.”

He had maintained that “we are beginning to see some evidence which is pointing at different numbers and we are ready to discuss those with the IMF, including the outlook of 29% that we are projecting for the rest of the year, and what that means for monetary policy going forward.”

The continued maintenance of a tight monetary policy stance and relative exchange rate stability had contributed significantly to the disinflation process observed in the year thus far.