Annual inflation rate for the month of May inched up 0.2 percentage points to 9.8 percent, relative to 9.6 percent recorded a month earlier, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced here on Wednesday.

The monthly change rate also went up to 1.0 percent during the month under review, compared with the 0.9 percent recorded in April.

The release read out by Acting Government Statistician Baah Wadieh indicated that all primary indicators in the inflation basket went up during the month under review.

May food inflation inched up to 7.6 percent, up from the previous 7.4 percent, while the non-food inflation also up-ticked to 10.9 percent, compared with the 10.6 percent in April.

The effect of the depreciation of the local cedi currency against the U.S. dollar also reflected in the inflation rate for imported items which rose up to 12.4 percent in May, compared with the 12 percent recorded a month earlier.

In the same vein, locally produced items also saw their inflation rate inching up to 8.7 percent in May, relative to the 8.5 percent recorded in the previous month.

The local cedi currency, which had held its own against the dollar between March and April, depreciated cumulatively by 3.0 percent in May.

Commuters across the country are also grappling with a 10 percent across-the-board increase in transport fares after prices went up again by 3.0 percent at petrol pumps at the end of May.

"The main reason for the slight increase in the inflation rate for May is the base-drift effect since the level of prices observed in May 2017 was slightly lower than we measured last month," Wadieh explained. Enditem