Ghana December Inflation at 7.9% Beats Year-End Target

(Bloomberg) --

Ghana beat the government’s inflation target for 2019 as food-price growth eased.

Annual inflation slowed to 7.9% in December from 8.2% in November, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim in the capital, Accra, said on Wednesday. Prices rose 0.3% in the month.

Key Insights

• The Finance Ministry’s mid-year budget statement set an inflation target of 8% for the end of 2019. Price growth dipped below that point for three months from August as the statistics office started using a new base year for the consumer-price index, before accelerating due to a weakening currency. The agency hasn’t provided revised data for the months before August, complicating the calculation of longer term trends.
• Food prices rose 7.2% from a year earlier, compared to 8.4% in November.
• The central bank, which aims to keep inflation in a band of 6% to 10%, said in November it sees the rate staying inside its target range, barring any unforeseen shocks. The cedi has gained some ground after reaching a record low against the dollar on Dec. 11.

To contact the reporters on this story: Moses Mozart Dzawu in Accra at mdzawu@bloomberg.net;Andre Janse van Vuuren in Accra at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.