Coming in at a series high, Ghana’s headline inflation accelerated to 37.2 percent y/y in September from 33.9 percent in August, partly driven by persistent currency weakness.
The cedi has weakened around 42 percent year-to-date against the dollar, fuelling inflation as it makes imports more expensive. The cedi is the worst-performing African currency this year, and risks for further depreciation in the cedi are robust.
Inflation in Ghana is expected to remain strong in the months ahead, as currency weakness persists amid the ongoing fiscal crisis. In yesterday’s CPI release, Ghana announced that it has changed the way it calculates inflation, which may impact inflation going forward. Specifically, the stats agency changed the reference (base) year to 2021 from 2018.
