In April 2024, Ghana’s inflation rate decreased marginally to 25% from 25.8% in March 2024, indicating a 0.8% slowdown for the month.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) attributes this decline to lower food inflation, which reached 26.8%, the lowest in 13 months, and non-food inflation, which stood at 23.5%.
In contrast, in March 2024, Ghana’s consumer inflation surged to a four-month high of 25.8% year-on-year, up from 23.2% in the previous month, significantly surpassing the central bank’s target band of 6% to 10%.
Chief Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim stated that the sharper rise in inflation was due to a depreciating currency, leading to higher costs for imported goods. He made these remarks in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday.
Both food (29.6% vs. 27% in February) and non-food product prices (22.6% vs. 20%) increased, particularly fuels. The Ghanaian cedi has depreciated by nearly 11% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year due to a stronger dollar, a decrease in cocoa output, and delays in debt restructuring.
The cedi’s depreciation against the dollar, around 11% so far this year, has made it the fourth worst-performing currency among those tracked by Bloomberg.