The country’s inflation rate dropped to 20.4 per cent in August 2024, down from 20.9 per cent in July, marking the sixth consecutive month of decline since it peaked at 25.8 per cent in March.

This ongoing reduction highlights a positive trend in the country's economic stability.

Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, the government Statistician, attributed the decrease to a significant drop in food inflation, which fell to 19.1 per cent in August. However, non-food inflation rose to 21.5 per cent.

 “Ghana continues to experience upward changes in prices. Between August 2023 and August 2024, general price levels of goods and services increased by 20.4 per cent. Disaggregating this, non-food inflation was 21.5 per cent in August 2024 compared to food inflation at 19.1 per cent,” Prof. Annim said.

Regionally, the Upper East recorded the highest inflation rate at 27.8 per cent, while the Northeast had the lowest at 10.1 per cent. Locally produced items had an inflation rate of 22.2 per cent, compared to 16.1 per cent for imported items.

Remarkably, month-on-month food inflation fell to -0.7 per cent in August, suggesting a reduction in general price levels from July.

“The data reveals a 6.1 percentage point difference between inflation on locally produced items and imported items. Locally produced items had an inflation rate of 22.2 per cent, while imported items stood at 16.1 per cent.

“We saw a slight increase in inflation on imported items from 15.6 per cent to 16.1 per cent, and a 1.1 percentage point decrease for locally produced items from 23.3 per cent to 22.2 per cent,” Prof. Annim noted.

He described the inflation decline as a positive economic indicator, suggesting a slowdown in price increases. Nevertheless, he cautioned that prices are still on the rise and stressed the need for ongoing efforts to sustain this downward trend.

“On a month-on-month basis, we recorded a significant drop in food inflation to -0.7 per cent for August 2024. This indicates a 0.7 per cent reduction in general price levels between July and August,” Prof. Annim added.