According to the Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana ended 2024 with an inflation rate higher than anticipated signifying a continuous rise in the cost of living for Ghanaians.
The latest data published by the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed that the country ended 2024 with an inflation rate of 23.8% in December higher than the 23% recorded in November.
The rise represents a 0.8 percentage point increase between November and December.
This implies that during last year’s Christmas festivities, Ghanaians experienced an average of 23.8% increase in the price of goods and services higher than what was experienced in the same period in 2023.
Announcing the new figures, Government Statistician, Prof Samuel Kobina Annim further explained that “in December 2024, average prices of goods and services went up by 23.8%, indicating that on a year-on-year basis, specifically between December 2023 and December 2024, general price levels of goods and services went up by 23.8%.”
This end-year surge, according to the Statistical Service data, was fuelled by food inflation which recorded a significant increase from 25.9% to 27.8%. This signifies that Ghanaians experienced higher food prices in the month of December which marred the Christmas celebrations for low-income earners and vulnerable groups.
However, Non-Food Inflation rather saw a marginal decrease in the period under review from 20.7 to 20.3 marking a slowdown in the rise of prices of non-food items in December last year.
The headline inflation of 23.8% recorded in December last year also implies the government missed its inflation target for 2024 by a considerable margin.
The government projected to end 2024 with an inflation rate of 15%; hence, the 23.8% outcome means the target was missed by a significant 8.8 percentage points, further highlighting the challenges in achieving economic stability during the year.
With the higher-than-estimated inflation rate, Ghanaians ended 2024 with a higher cost of living than what was anticipated by the government. This underscores the severe economic difficulties faced by households across the country, exacerbated by the persistent rise in food prices and limited impact of interventions aimed at stabilizing inflation.
