Ghana’s annual consumer price inflation fell to 12.6 percent in May from 13.0 percent the previous month due to lower fuel prices, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

The government aims to cut inflation to 11.2 percent by the end of the year as one part of a drive to restore macroeconomic stability under a three-year assistance programme with the International Monetary Fund.

“There has been a general decline in prices across food and non-food items, driven by declining fuel prices,” acting government statistician Baah Wadieh told a news conference in Accra.

Food inflation fell to 6.3 percent in May from 6.7 percent in April while non-food inflation also dipped to 15.8 percent from 16.3 percent, Wadieh said, adding that the May figure was the lowest since December 2013.

The month-on-month inflation rate was 0.7 percent in May, compared to 1.6 percent the previous month.

Ghana, which exports cocoa, gold and oil, said in April it was committed to reducing inflation, the public debt and budget deficit. It was one of Africa’s strongest economies until 2014, when it was hit by a slump in commodity prices and a fiscal crisis.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Jon Boyle)

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