Ghana’s inflation rate unexpectedly rose to a four-month high in July on food costs, adding pressure on the central bank to continue rate hikes next month.
Annual inflation quickened to 43.1% from 42.5% in June, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters in the capital, Accra on Wednesday. That was the highest level since March. The median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg survey was 42%.
The main drivers of the acceleration were food prices, said Annim. Food inflation quickened to 55% from 54.2% last month, and non-food price growth accelerated to 33.8% from 33.4%. Prices rose 3.6% in the month.
The central bank raised rates by 50 basis points to 30% last month because it said that price pressures were not easing fast enough, bringing combined increases to 16.5 percentage points since November 2021.
If the uptick is sustained policymakers may be persuaded to hike again when they meet Sept. 18-22.
The Ghanaian cedi traded relatively unchanged at 11.1646 per dollar at 11:04 a.m. in the capital, Accra. The nation’s dollar bond maturing in 2032 rose 0.2 cents to 45.1 cents on the dollar, according to Bloomberg generic pricing.
