Headline inflation dipped by 0.3% to 23.2% at end-February 2024.
Inflation for January 2024 stood at 23.5%.
Announcing the inflation rate for February during a press briefing on Wednesday, Government Statistician Prof. Samuel Kobina Anim provided a breakdown of the figures, explaining that the 23.2 percent indicates an increase in the prices of goods and services.
The February rate of inflation fell to 23.2 percent. This year-on-year inflation signifies that over a one-year period, prices of goods and services have gone up by 23.2 percent.
“This figure is a reversal of the marginal increase we recorded in the month of January 2024, when the slowdown that we have successfully recorded for the last seven months saw a marginal increase to 23.5 percent. In reverse, we have turned around this increase for January 2024 to a reverse of 23.2 percent.”
Food inflation slowed to 27% from 27.1% in January, while non-food price growth was 20% compared with 20.5%.
Month on month, food inflation stood at 2.0% from 1.6% in January 2024 while non-food inflation for February was 1.30% from 2.4%.
Three of the divisions that recorded inflation rates above the yearly average of 23.2% were: Alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics [38.5%], Restaurant and accommodation services [31.9%], and Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services [30.3%].
On the other hand, the Insurance and financial services [8.9%] and Transport [3.5%] divisions recorded the lowest inflation rates, respectively.
Local Inflation was 0.4 percentage points higher compared to the previous month, recording 24.6% for February 2024. However, imported inflation saw a 1.9% decline from 22.0% in January, to record 20.1% in February.
On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation declined from 2.0% in January to 1.6% in February 2024.
On a regional basis, the Eastern Region saw the highest inflation of 36.1%, a dip from the 37.1% registered in January 2024. Conversely, the Oti Region reported the lowest inflation, standing at 13.10%.