General News of Monday, 20 December 1999

Source: Reuters

Ghana consumer prices up 13.2 pct y/y in Nov

ACCRA, December 20 (Reuters) - Consumer prices in Ghana rose by 0.4 percent in November from October, pushing year-on-year inflation up to 13.2 percent from 12.6 percent, the government statistical service said.

 CONSUMER PRICES               NOV       OCT         NOV 98

Change on month +0.4 -0.6 -0.1

Change on year +13.2 +12.6 +16.2

Index (base Sept 1997-100) 130.9 130.4 115.6


NOTE - Food and drink prices, with a weight of 52 percent in the overall index, were down by 1.2 percent on the month but housing and utilities went up 8.0 percent.

Analysts said an increase in the price of petroleum products at the beginning of December and higher import costs attributable to the decline in the cedi currency would put further upward pressure on the index.

The government's inflation target for the end of 1999 has recently been revised to 12 percent from 9.5 percent. Inflation at the end of 1998 was 15.8 percent.