Ghana's consumer inflation declined to 8.8 percent in December 2012, from 9.3 percent recorded the previous month, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced here Wednesday.
The monthly change rate for the month under review, according to Acting Government Statistician Philomena Nyarko, was 0.7 percent up, compared to the 0.5 percent recorded for November.
The lower rate of price increases for consumer products in December, she explained, was due to the relative stability in the Foreign Exchange (FX) market.
"There was also no petroleum price increase in December," Nyarko observed, adding that "the rate of price increases for December 2012 were relatively lower than price increase levels for the same period in 2011, hence the drop in inflation".
Ghana's Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures consumer inflation, is based on two main components, namely food inflation, with 44.91 percent share of the inflation basket, and non-food inflation, with 55.09 percent share of the basket.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages group, according to Nyarko, recorded an average annual inflation of 3.9 percent in December, the same as recorded in the previous month, with eight sub-groups recording inflation rates above the group average.
"The non-food group recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 11.6 percent," she stated, adding that six sub-groups also recorded inflation rates above the group average.
While transportation recorded the highest inflation rate of 20. 6 percent, the communications sub-group recorded the lowest rate of 0.4 percent.
Inflation consequently started rising, with many analysts projecting over 10 percent end-point inflation for the West African country./.