Inflation for the month of February declined marginally. It went down from the 19 percent recorded in January to 18.5 percent.

Speaking with JOY BUSINESS after a press briefing, Acting Deputy Government Statistician in charge of Operations at the Statistical Service Anthony Amuzu said utility tariff hikes and its attendant increases in transport fares highly influenced the inflation rate.

“That is mainly the reason why we had that high jump from 17.7 percent to 19 percent, but once that has been stabilized and we entered February, that effect which is known as the ‘Base-drift effect’ was eroded and that has resulted in the level coming down to the 18.5 percent as seen for the month of February.”

The inflation for imported items he also noted declined marginally against that of locally produced items – a development he attributes to the decline in the inflation for the imported items could be attributed to the stability in the exchange rate regime.

“Last year for instance the Cedi was galloping against the major currencies but now we seem to have some stability” he added.

This he says could have influenced the decline from the 19 percent rate recorded in January compared to the 18.5 percent recorded in February 2015.

BELOW ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS

The food and non-alcoholic beverages group recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 8.3 percent – 1 percentage point higher than the 8.2 percent recorded in January 2016

The year-on-year inflation rate for locally produced items (18.6%) for February 2016 was 0.3 percentage points higher than that of imported items.

The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (41%), Transport (30%), Education (25.4%) and Recreation and Culture (25.3%).

The “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were Mineral Water, Soft Drinks, Fruit and Vegetable Juices (11%), Sugar, Jam, Honey, Chocolate and Confectionery (10%), Vegetables (9.9%), Food products n.e.c (9.6%) and Oils and Fats (8.5%)

Three regions (Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and Greater Accra) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 18.5 percent

The Greater Accra Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 22% while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest (13.8%)