Inflation for May 2024 has dropped significantly to 23.1%, down from 25.0% in April 2024, representing a 1.9 percentage point decrease between April and May 2024.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, food inflation contributed to the overall drop in the rate of inflation, recording a rate of 22.6% compared to 26.8% last month.
However, non-food inflation increased slightly to 23.6% in May 2024, up from 23.5% in April 2024.
Inflation for locally produced items and imported items fell to 24.7% and 19.6%, respectively.
Speaking to journalists in Accra, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim urged policymakers to focus on transportation, which recorded a month-on-month inflation of 10.5%, rather than on food inflation as a primary driver of inflation.
“In this case what I want the media and policymakers to engage is not food inflation but in this case, transport where we are seeing month-on-month transport inflation of 10.5% when overall month-on-month is 3.2% and we all do appreciate how transport permits across the other items that we have in the basket for the competition.
“So the conversation that I really wish will be on the table going forward is how do we ensure that the consistent but slow increases in prices of food at other points would slow down and possibly see reduction going forward.”