March inflation remains at 10.3 per cent

Inflation from the consumer perspective for the month of March 2021 stood at 10.3 per cent.This means the rate for February 2021 was also 10.3 per cent.

Announcing the figures at a press conference in Accra today yesterday, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Annim, said it showed the relative stability in inflation between February and March 2021.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures changes in the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by households. The rate of inflation is the relative change in CPI between periods. Inflation is reported year-on-year and month-on-month.

The monthly food inflation was 0.2 per cent, which is lower than seven other divisions. Education Services recorded no month-on-month inflation.

Meanwhile, the national monthly inflation from February 2021 to March 2021 was 0.9 per cent, slightly higher than that of last month.

Divisions

The food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation was 10.8 per cent and average non-food inflation of 10.0 per cent. Regional inflation was between 17.0 per cent in the Greater Accra Region and 5.3 per cent in the Volta Region.

Housing, water, electricity, and gas went up by 29.0 per cent from the 23.4 per cent recorded last month, and food and non-alcoholic beverages went down from 12.3 per cent to 10.8 per cent, recording the highest rates of inflation.

At the regional level, the overall year-on-year inflation ranged from 5.3 per cent in the Volta Region to 17.0 per cent in the Greater Accra Region.

Overall, the year-on-year inflation went up in four regions compared to last month.

Food and non-food inflation

This month, food inflation (10.8 per cent) was both lower than last month (12.3 per cent) and the average of the previous 12 months was 12.8 per cent.

This leads to food inflation decreasing in its contribution to total inflation to 46.3 per cent, the lowest contribution observed since February 2020. Overall, the month-on-month food inflation was 0.2 per cent.

With the exception of education services which recorded no change between February and March 2021, all the other divisions recorded positive month-on-month inflation.

Imported and local inflation

The inflation of imported goods also stood at 6.8 per cent, up from the 6.7 per cent recorded last month, while the inflation for locally produced items was 11.7 per cent on average (same as the 11.7 per cent recorded last month). Month-on-month inflation for imported goods was 0.5 per cent and for locally produced goods 1.0 per cent.