(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s inflation rate unexpectedly increased in September for the first time in six months, raising doubts about policymakers’ forecasts that price growth will ease further toward the end of the years.
Consumer prices rose 21.5% from 20.4% in August, government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday.
The main driver of the increase was food prices, according to statistics office’s data. They rose at an annual rate of 22.1% compared with 19.1% in August. Non-food inflation slowed to 20.9% from 21.5%. Month-on-month, prices rose 2.8% in September.
Ghana’s dollar bonds maturing in 2032 rose 0.15 cent to 53.37 cents on the dollar at 11:50 a.m. in London. The cedi traded relatively unchanged at 15.8125 per dollar.
Inflation had been expected to continue slowing by the central bank, which lowered interest rates last week by 200 basis points to 27% based on a forecast that price pressures would cool to 13% to 17% by the end of the year.
The central bank also said that risks to inflation were assessed as fairly balanced.
The rise comes ahead of presidential elections on Dec. 7, in which Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia — the ruling New Patriotic Party’s candidate for the top job—is considered an underdog to opposition leader John Dramani Mahama amid public anger over the economy and high cost of living.
--With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff and Moses Mozart Dzawu.
(Updates with more details from third paragraph.)
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