Ghana's inflation rate drops first time in 2009

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:56 June 15 2009]
• Comments

Ghana's annual inflation rate dropped for the first time in 2009 to 20.06 percent in May, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.

 The News Agency of Ghana reported Sunday that the drop is 0.5 in percentage terms as against the annual inflation rate of 20.56 percent for the month of April.

 It was attributed to a fall in the food component of the consumer price index which stood at 17.17 percent in May, as against 21.46 percent for the previous month.

 Apart from the Greater Accra Region, where the contribution of food component to the inflation rate was highest, the rest of the regions recorded highest rates at the non-food group.

 Professor Christian Nsowah-Nuamah, deputy government statistician who announced the figures in Accra, said the rising oil prices were responsible for the high levels of the inflation figures.

 Amid estimations that the oil prices would continue to rise, Nsowah-Nuamah could not predict the outlook of the trend of the

country's inflation, but was optimistic that it would go down since the country was inching toward the harvest season.