The Ghana Statistical Service has announced that the year-on-year inflation for May 2023 has increased to 42.2%.

Government statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, at a press conference in Kumasi on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, noted that the increase was driven by the food and non-food category.

According to Prof Annim, three items out of the 13 presented in the report by the GSS were the result of the spike. They were food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, water, and electricity and gas, and transport.

He stated that the above contributed almost three quarters to the overall inflation with food and non-alcoholic beverages contributing more than 50% to the rate of inflation that was recorded in May 2023.

"Specifically, food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 52.4% to the overall inflation recorded in May 2023. This was distantly followed by housing , water, and electricity and gas that contributed 13.1% and closely followed by transport contributing 9.2% to the overall inflation that was recorded in the month of May 2023," he said.

The division that contributed the lowest was insurance and financial service that contributed 0.1 to the overall contribution for May 2023.

The Consumer Price Inflation, the statistician said, measures changes in the price of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by households.

The assumption is that the basket is purchased each month, hence capturing price changes each month.

ESA/FNOQ