Russia-Ukraine War: Inflation Hits 19.4% In March

The ripple effect of the Russia-Ukraine war is beginning to impact the Ghanaian economy, as transport and food drove March consumer inflation to 19.4 percent year on year (y/y), the highest since September 2016 per rebasing of the index, data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has shown.

Prices rallied by 3.7 percentage points from 15.7 percent y/y in February 2022 and from 13.9 percent y/y in January 2022 − the highest level since the rebasing of the index in Aug-2019.

Consumer inflation, which is the measure of changes in the price of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by households in the country, has intensified and pushed further away from the reach of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) target band of 10 percent, as food and transport inflation surged.

At the press briefing, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim said: “If you look at the trends over the last three months, one would want to assume that the effects of the war in Ukraine, if anything, is now telling on inflation, given that the highest inflation was in housing, water, electricity and gas, and it is now telling on transport and food.

“So, it’s clearly pronouncing that the war is having effect on these two items, that is why we are seeing a change away from housing, electricity and gas, to transport having the highest division with inflation rate of 27.6 percent,” Prof. Annim explained.

“Thus, from that perspective one can summarise that we are beginning to see the effects of the Ukrainian war in Ghana,” he said.