Rises to 13.0% in April in higher transport costs

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May 10, 2017 12:54 PM

President Nana Akufo-Addo wants to slow inflation to 11.2 per cent by the end of the year as part of its drive to restore macroeconomic stability.

Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was elected in December on a promise to fix a host of economic problems and fight corruption, stressed that his ministers "are coming to work, it is not going to be a holiday"

Higher transport costs helped drive Ghana’s annual inflation rate higher to 13.0 per cent in April from 12.8 per cent the previous month, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo wants to slow inflation to 11.2 per cent by the end of the year as part of its drive to restore macroeconomic stability under a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a positive for that target, food inflation fell to 6.7 per cent in April from 7.3 per cent a month earlier.

Non-food inflation, however, accelerated to 16.3 per cent from 15.6.

“The marginal increase in the index was mainly due to a rise in transport fares which went up by 9.6 per cent last month,” deputy government statistician Baah Wadieh told a news conference.

Ghana, which exports cocoa, gold and oil, said in April it was committed to reducing inflation, public debt and the budget deficit.

It was one of Africa’s best-performing economies until 2014, when it was hit by a slump in commodity prices.

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