Ghana: Inflation moderates in January

Consumer prices increased 1.4% over the previous month in January, accelerating from a 1.0% in month-on-month rise in December, and marking the highest reading since April 2017.

Inflation, however, slowed to a multi-year low in the month, coming in at 10.3%, down from 11.8% December. The reading primarily reflected more moderate food and alcoholic beverages inflation partly offsetting relatively higher non-food inflation, particularly higher prices for transport, clothing and footwear, and recreation and culture.

As a result, inflation now sits only marginally above the upper limit of Central Bank’s medium-term inflation target of 8.0% plus or minus 2.0%. In turn, annual average inflation fell from 12.4% in December to 12.1% in January.

Ghana Inflation Forecast

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect inflation to average 10.5% in 2018, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast, and 9.4% in 2019.