By Nana Ama Brown
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) doubts the country’s inflation will witness a decline anytime soon as figures peg the inflation rate at 31.7 per cent in July.
In an interview with JoyNews, the Service’s Head of Price Statistics, John Forster Agyaho, warned that prices of goods and services may continue to rise on the market despite the onset of the harvest season for food crops. The situation, according to him, is due to high imported inflation as a result of global crises.
“We are in the harvest season but look at the weight of food items in the basket. Why would you expect prices of food to go down?”
“But there are other factors in the basket that affect inflation. If we continue seeing higher imported inflation because of the global crises, there will be past research in cutting foods from the farm base to the market centers. These other factors are also things that we shouldn’t gloss over,” he said on Wednesday.
Traders have also not been left out in the crisis. Many traders have complained about the impact of high goods prices on their businesses.
“Prices have gone up, last year, things were better, we used to sell four big fishes for ₵10, now, it’s three for ₵10.
“Prices have really gone up, we don’t know what to do. We are not making profits,” a trader told JoyNews.
Earlier in August, data presented by the GSS revealed that inflation had crossed the 30% mark to hit 31.7%.
This is the highest inflation rate recorded since late 2003.
According to the GSS, the increase in inflation was once again caused by Transport (44.6%); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (43.0%); Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance (42.0%); Recreation, Sport and Culture (33.8%); Personal Care, Social Protection and Miscellaneous Goods and Services (33.7%) and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (32.3%).
