The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced that the country’s inflation fell to 8.6 per cent in December 2010, significantly below the government’s end of year target. The inflation for the month of November of the same year stood at 9.08 per cent. The downward trend is attributed to the stability of domestic currency, which helped reduce the cost of goods.
Head of Statistics at GSS, Magnus Ebo Duncan, said that cedi’s stability “helped in slowing down the price of goods.” He also noted that food inflation slowed to 4.5 per cent in December, from 5.3 per cent the month before, but warned that the downward trend might come to a halt following the hike in fuel prices announced by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in early January.
“We always see that whenever there is fuel price hikes then inflation rate increases…But you have about 80 per cent to 90 per cent chance that inflation will go up but you can also not rule out that it might come down,” he said.
Speaking about the issue, Data Bank economic analyst, Sampson Akligoh explained that the new trend, indicates that although prices are rising, they are doing so at a slower pace. He also added that a drop in inflation does not mean a decline in the price of goods.
Sources: Bloomberg, Ghana Business News, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters
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