Ghana: Inflation picks up in April
Latest reading: Consumer prices were up 3.4% on a year-on-year basis in April, following a 3.2% rise in the prior month.
Relative to the prior month’s data, price pressures were higher for transport in April (-3.4% in annual terms vs -7.3% in March). In contrast, there were milder price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+2.2% vs +2.3% in March), clothing and footwear (+2.6% vs +3.6% in March) and recreation and entertainment (+4.8% vs +6.4% in March). Finally, the variation in prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels was the same as in the prior month (+12.4% in both April and March).
Finally, consumer prices were up 0.95% in April in month-on-month terms, following a 0.13% increase in the prior month.
Panelist insight: Leeuwner Esterhuysen, senior economist at Oxford Economics, commented on the inflation outlook, following the latest reading: “Although Ghana’s annual inflation print remains well below the lower bound of the central bank’s 6%–10% target range, higher external price pressures will take time to fully feed through to Ghana’s inflation rate. We maintain that the main channel through which the conflict [the U.S.-Iran war] will affect the Ghanaian economy will be through adverse inflationary effects, as both food and fuel prices in the country are likely to rise further amid higher global commodity prices. As such, we maintain our inflation forecast of 8.6% for the year, implying that inflation may breach the upper limit of the central bank’s target range in H2.”