Ghana’s consumer inflation reached a new 21-year high of 40.4% year on year in October, up from 37.2% in September 2022.
Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters on Wednesday in the capital, Accra.
An economic crisis was made worse by a month of swift currency depreciation, which led to the current spike in inflation. In October, Ghana’s cedi had one of its worst months ever, and by 2022, it will be worth about half as much against the dollar.
On Saturday, over a thousand protesters gathered in Accra, the nation’s capital, to call for the resignation of the president as the cost of food and fuel continues to rise. Last month, small businesses shut their doors for a few days to protest price increases.
Ghana is knee deep in economic misery as Food-price growth quickened to 43.7% from 37.8% in September, and non-food inflation accelerated to 37.8% from 36.8%. Prices rose 2.7% in the month.
In an effort to contain inflation and slow the depreciation of the cedi, the central bank has increased its main lending rate by 10 percentage points since the year’s beginning. On November 28, the monetary policy committee of the Bank of Ghana will decide whether to raise its benchmark interest rate for a fifth time this year.
The cedi has declined by 57% since January, the most among 148 currencies tracked by Bloomberg, and at the same time, the cost of imported goods has increased due to a rise in global commodity prices.
The cedi’s plunge has been partly driven by uncertainty over Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s future, after the opposition introduced a motion in parliament to remove him because of the nation’s economic crisis.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s is also leading negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to secure a $3 billion economic-support package and is due to present the nation’s 2023 budget later this month.
