The year-on-year inflation rate inches up to 9.8 per cent in May from 9.6 per cent recorded in April.
Mr Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician, at a media briefing on Wednesday attributed the slight rise to the increase in both food and non-food inflation rates.
The year-on-year non-food rate for May, this year was 10.9 per cent compared with 10.6 per cent recorded in April, while the year-on-year food inflation rate for May, this year was 7.6 per cent, compared with 7.4 per cent in April.
The year-on-year non-food inflation (10.9 per cent) is almost one and half times that of the food inflation rate of (7.6 per cent).
The year-on-year inflation rate in May this year for imported items was 12.4 per cent, which was 3.7 percentage points higher than that of locally produced items, which was 8.7 per cent.
The main price drivers for the non-food inflation rate were clothing and footwear (17.2 per cent), recreation and culture (14.2 per cent), furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (14.0 per cent), and miscellaneous goods and service (12.8 per cent).
For food inflation, coffee, tea and cocoa recorded the highest inflation rate with 10.8 per cent, fruits 9.9 per cent, mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juice 9.3 per cent, food products 9.3 per cent, meat and meat products 9.1 per cent, vegetables 8.1 per cent and oils and fats 8.0 per cent.
At the regional level, Mr Wadieh said five Regions – Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Northern and Ashanti – recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 9.8 per cent.
He said Upper West Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 12.0 per cent, followed by Brong Ahafo Region’s 11.0 per cent with Upper East Region recording the lowest year-on-year inflation rate of 8.4 per cent.
GNA
