Ghana Inflation Quickens in July as Water And Power Prices Rise

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s inflation rate rose in July as utility tariffs increased.

Annual inflation quickened to 9.4% from 9.1% in June, Deputy Government Statistician David Kombat told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Accra. Prices rose 0.6% in the month.

Key Insights:

• Despite the pick-up, inflation remains inside the Bank of Ghana’s target band of 6% to 10% and there may still be room to loosen policy further in the second half of the year. The central bank left its key interest rate at 16% last month even as Governor Ernest Addison cited a downward trend in underlying inflation and downside risks to the economic growth outlook due to weak business sentiment.
• Power tariffs rose by 11.2% last month and water prices by 8%.
• The statistics office still uses the old base year of 2012 and once it starts using the 2017 base for the index, that could change the inflation number.

To contact the reporters on this story: Moses Mozart Dzawu in Accra at mdzawu@bloomberg.net;Yinka Ibukun in Lagos at yibukun@bloomberg.net

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

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