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The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission in December announced a 59.2 per cent increase in electricity tariffs while water went up to about 89 per cent. In January fuel prices also went up by 27 percent.

The monthly change rate for January 2016 was 4.6 per cent compared with December change of 1.1 per cent.

The food inflation rate for January was 8.2 per cent slightly up from the 8.0 per cent recorded in December 2015.

On the other hand, the non-food inflation rate for January stood at 25.5 per cent from 23.3 per cent in December 2015.

“The non-food inflation rate (25.5%) is more than three times higher than the food inflation rate (8.2%),”Mr Wadieh said.      

The inflation rate for imported items was 18.7 per cent in January 2016 compared with 18.3 per cent in December, while that of locally produced items was 19.1 per cent versus 17.5 per cent for the same period.

The main “price drivers” for the non-food inflation rate were housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributing about 45.5 per cent while transport added 30.8 per cent.

The “price drivers” for the food inflation rate were coffee, tea and cocoa, mineral water, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices, sugar, jam, honey,  chocolate and confectionery, food products and vegetables.

Two Regions (Ashanti and Greater Accra) recorded inflation rates higher than the national average of 19.0 per cent.   

The Greater Accra Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 23.1 per cent while the Upper East Region recorded the lowest of 14.1 per cent.