Inflation for February went up to 16.5 per cent from a previous rate of 16.4 per cent in January, the Government Statistician announced on Wednesday, March 11.

Dr Philomena Nyarko, the head of the Ghana Statistical Service, in giving a breakdown of the rate, indicated that the Central, Volta, Upper East and Ashanti regions recorded rates higher than the national figure.

Central Region, she announced, recorded the highest rate of 20.0 per cent.

“The Region has to bring in food from other areas and so transportation costs may be a factor and also the fact that you have a lot of people chasing fewer goods,” Dr Nyarko explained.

She also indicated that the various educational institutions may have played a part.

“Knowing that we have a lot of educational institutions, we have a lot of students chasing the few commodities that are available.”

Upper West Region recorded the lowest inflation rate of 13.3 per cent.

While Food inflation went up to 7.0 per cent, Non Food inflation recorded a rate of 23 per cent.

Imported items with a rate of 22.5 per cent was more than that for locally produced items.

“For the imported items, we are seeing some consistent decline in the rate of inflation.”

Rising inflation has been one of knocks to the Ghanaian economy, forcing government to consult the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a programme.

Source: tv3network.com|Ghana