An increase in May inflation has defied yet again Ghana's untiring efforts to attain single digit inflation as one of the pre-conditions for joining the West Africa Monetary Zone in 2009.

With an annual rate of inflation for May being 11 percent, analysts say the 10.5 percent recorded in April this year was much nearer to the one-figure target than last month’s rate.

According to the latest rebased consumer price index released by the Ghana Statistical Service in Accra on Friday, the monthly change of rate of inflation, which is the CPI of May this year compared with that of April, was 1.8 percent.

Comparatively, the rate of inflation between April 2007 and March this year was 1.5 percent. The monthly rate indicates how much the general price level changed between the previous month and the current month (May 2007).

The national CPI for May this year was 218.41 with respect to base year 2002 on average. This index, when compared with that of May 2006 which was 196.73, gave the annual inflation rate of 10.2 percent. The rate shows how much the general price level has changed over the period that is between May 2006 and May 2007.
The annual average rate of inflation is the current year’s average CPI compared with that of the previous year’s average CPI. The annual average for May 2007 was 11.1 percent. The comparable figure for last April was 11.2 percent

The national index increased by 3.86 points per units between April and May 2007, with the contribution of the food and beverages group between the two months was 3.08 percent while non-food groups together contributed 0.79 points per units.

Within the food and beverages group, vegetables including potatoes and other tuber vegetables group had the highest upward movement of 1.73 points to the change in the national index.

Within the non-food group, transport contributed the highest to the upward movement of the index with 0.42 points, with petrol, which registered 0.23 points, being the highest contributor.

Meanwhile, old CPI annual rate of inflation for May this year was 10.1 percent as against 9.9 percent for last April. The old national CPI for last May was 496.54 with respect to the base year of September 1997.

Credit: Statesman