Govt misses 2024 inflation target as December rate hits 23.8%

The government has missed its 2024 end-year inflation target of 15% as inflation for December 2024 rose slightly to 23.8%, up from 23.0% in November, primarily driven by increases in food prices.

This marks the fourth consecutive monthly rise after a five-month decline. Food inflation jumped from 25.9% to 27.8%, while non-food inflation saw a slight decrease, from 20.7% to 20.3%.

Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim 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 is against the backdrop that on a year-on-year basis November 2024 we recorded an overall rate of inflation of 23.0% indicating that on a year-on-year basis between November and December 2024 we saw a marginal increase of 0.8 percentage points for the year-on-year inflation.

“Disaggregating year-on-year inflation from a food and non-food perspective, we identified a 7.5 percentage point difference between inflation for food and inflation for non-food with inflation for food standing at 27.8% in December 2024 and non-food inflation at 20.3% for December 2024.

“We have seen an increase in food inflation increasing from 25.9% to 27.8% and in contrast; we have recorded a decline in non-food inflation declining from 20.7% by 0.4 percentage points to 20.3% for the month of December 2024.

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