Ghana’s inflation rate fell to 18.37 percent in September, the third consecutive decline, raising the prospect of the first interest rate cut in three years.

The rate declined from 19.65 percent in August, government statistician Sylvester Gyamfi told reporters in the capital, Accra, today. September’s rate is the lowest of the year, Gyamfi said.

Slowing inflation may prompt the central bank to cut its prime lending rate for the first time since 2006, Governor Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said in an interview on Sept. 30, a day before he took office. The Bank of Ghana has kept its key lending rate steady at 18.5 percent since February.

“I expect that as inflation goes down, we should start bringing down the prime rate,” Amissah-Arthur said in the interview.

In August, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor predicted inflation would slow to 14.5 percent by the end of the year, citing a stabilized domestic currency, the cedi.

Food price increases slowed to an annual 12.8 percent in September from 14.8 percent in August, while non-food costs rose 22.4 percent, compared with 23.3 percent the previous month, Gyamfi said.