By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim has disclosed that Ghana’s current rising inflation has more to do with the country’s fiscal policies rather than monetary policy.
According to the Government Statistician, data collected by his outfit indicates that the rising cost of goods can only be tackled through policy decisions taken by the government on the supply side of things.
Delivering his Inaugural Lecture at the University of Cape Coast last week, Prof. Annim said “If you want to resolve the inflation rate issues in Ghana, it’s not a monetary policy argument. Thankfully, the Central Bank governor has indicated that we should begin to think of the supply side.”
He explained further that, data collected from 54 food trading outlets across the country in January 2018, during the COVID-19 period in May 2020, and this year amidst the Russia-Ukraine war in April 2022, point to wide disparities in prices at different outlets during the two periods of economic turmoil.
Prof. Annim noted that while the cost of a bag of rice across all 54 outlets in 2018 was stable and almost the same, the prices at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic varied significantly and have become even worse presently.
“I look at the data from our 54 outlets over three time periods; 2018, during the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and see the disparities in prices across these markets…In 2018, there was stability in prices across the outlets. During the COVID-19, you see the varying prices and during the Russia – Ukraine war you see stack variations across the outlets” Prof. Annim said.
“The human factor in the variations in our prices during economic turmoil is pretty significant… With some outlets selling a 5kg of imported rice specifically Gino rice over GHS108, I took the pain to check last week and it is just GHS63 somewhere in Accra. We look at the numbers, and we say that what you need to think about is the hoarding effect and transportation effect,” he added.
