Food and fuel drive March inflation to 25.8% from 23.2%

The rate of inflation for March 2024 increased to 25.8 percent, a 2.6 percentage point increase from 23.2 percent in February.

The increase was largely driven by the prices of food and fuel.

This increase, which represents a four-month high, also affected food inflation, which increased to 29.6% from 27.0 percent in February.

Non-food inflation also increased, from 20% in February to 22.6 percent in March.

“In the month of March 2024, the rate of inflation stood at 25.8%, year-on-year inflation relative to 23.2% recorded for the month of February 2024. This indicates that we have seen a surge in the rate of inflation by 2.6%, increasing from 23.2% to 25.8% for the month of March 2024.”

“Disaggregating this for the food and non-food perspective, the rate of inflation for food was 29.6% relative to non-food 22.6%. Both food and non-food inflation have seen a 2.6% increase in their rate of inflation between February and March 2024,” government statistician Prof. Samuel Annim said in a press briefing on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

The surge in the inflation rate comes amid increases in the prices of petrol and diesel, with analysts predicting further increases, largely attributable to the cedi depreciation.

As a result, transport operators across the country have threatened to increase fares in the coming days to meet their operational costs.