Ghana’s headline inflation rate has dropped to 40.1% in August, the lowest in 10 months to reduce pressure on the central bank to keep raising borrowing costs.
According to reports from Bloomberg, the Government Statistician, Samuel Kobina Annim stated that the annual inflation rate dropped to 43.1% in July to 40.1% in the latest data from the West African nation.
He revealed that the major cause of the slowdown in inflation was a decline in food prices.
Food inflation slowed to 51.9% from 55% in July, and non-food price growth was 30.9% compared with 33.8%. Prices declined 0.2% month-on-month.
According to a Bloomberg Africa Economist, Yvonne Mhango, “The sharper-than-expected slowdown in headline inflation was broad-based. A more stable cedi helped moderate inflation.”
The Ghanaian cedi has maintained relative stability since receiving an emergency bailout from the International Monetary Fund in May.
After the release of the report, cedi remained steady at a rate of 11.45 per dollar.
Also, Ghana’s 2032-dollar bonds have brought the yield down to 23.11% after experiencing a five-basis point decrease.
The central bank increased rates by 50 basis points to 30% due to persistent inflation concerns in July marking a total hike of 16.5 percentage points since November 2021.
The monetary policy committee is set to announce a new rate decision on September 25th.
