The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the change over time in the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the purposes of consumption, in the month of October 2019 went up by 7.7%.

Briefing the press in Accra, Professor Samuel K Annim, Government Statistician of the Ghana Statistical Service, said the year-on-year inflation rate as measured by CPI increased by 0.1 percentage point from the 7.6% recorded in September 2019.

For the food and non-alcoholic beverages group, the Statistician pointed out that the year -on -year inflation rate recorded 7.0%, which is 1.5 percentage points lower than the 8.5% recorded in September 2019.

“Between September 2019 and October 2019 the price level of Food and Non-alcoholic beverages went down slightly by -1.2%. This decline is predominantly driven by a decline in price levels of vegetables and fruits,” he explained.

For the non-food group, Prof Annim said it recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 8.2% in October 2019, compared to 7.0% recorded for September 2019.

He said, “non-food classes with the highest year-on-year inflation included transport services of goods 37.5%, narcotics 33.8%, passenger transport 14.1%, alcoholic beverages 12.4%, maintenance of dwellings 11.7%, electricity, gas and fuels 11.7%, and information and communication services 8.4%.”

He pointed out that at the regional level, the year-on-year inflation ranged from 3.6% in Upper East Region to11.8% in the Greater Accra Region.

He also said the inflation of imported goods was 8.9%, while the inflation of local goods was 5.9% on average.