The host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV has predicted that Ghana’s inflation will likely see a rise in the coming months despite the country recording a 45% inflation in March 2023
Dr. Randy Abbey said the drop in inflation may come as a respite but the subsequent months may come as a test, adding that the new tax measures by the government are yet to reflect.
“April might be another test because the new tax measures that were passed by Parliament will kick in as far as April is concerned and maybe, we will be able to see the impact especially, when it comes to the area of imported items,” he said on his show on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
He praised hitherto the significant feet achieved from 52. 8% to 45%.
“Obviously, 52.8 to 45 that’s about an almost 8% decrease. That’s quite significant,” the seasoned broadcaster opined.
Also, contributing to the discourse on Ghana’s favorite socio-political show, Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, the Member of Parliament for Sekondi Constituency, Andrew Egyapa Mercer stated that although the governing NPP is excited with the figures, they hope to match up with the Bank of Ghana’s upper policy target of 10%.
“The expectation or the hope (if you like) is that we will get to the Bank of Ghana target of 10%. I recognize and I’m sure many Ghanaians do recognize that the situation will come down further as we go into the year in view of getting to the Bank of Ghana target.”
Mr. Egyapa Mercer admits that the quest for a lower inflation rate necessary to match up with the requirements of the BOG was not going to be derived overnight, he, however, wishes for a downward stream in the subsequent months.
“Obviously, sure we all recognize that it is not going to take place overnight. It’s going to take some time. I am especially excited that we began to see some downward trend. Clearly, we had peed to the point where we can only come down.”
He intimated that contrary to what Dr. Randy Abbey perceives, the new taxes will not have a significant impact on the inflation rate for April, adding that two of the new taxes were already in existence but were only amended.
“Not necessarily, of course, there was only one new tax handle. The growth and sustainability was the new one. The other two were amendments to existing legislation. Let’s see how that also impacts the inflation numbers.”
Meanwhile, a private legal practitioner Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, who was also a panelist on the show noted that the drop in the inflation rate does not culminate in the price of goods and services.
“But you see, ordinarily, we should be excited if the numbers are showing that the rate of inflation shows a steep decline, but if you study the trends, you will notice that the fact that it has moved from 51% to now 45% does not in and of itself translates in reduction in prices of goods and services,” he positioned.
Background
The latest statement from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) records a 45% inflation rate for Ghana in March 2023 as against a 53.6% and 52.6% for January and February 2023 respectively.
Although a significant reduction of about 8%, inflation however still fails to match up with the Bank of Ghana’s upper policy target of 10%, a quadruple box up of the expected figure.
The GSS through its data recorded the highest inflation rate of 54.1% in December 2022.
From last month’s inflation data, the GSS indicated a record of food inflation at 58.8% in March this year while non-food inflation stood at 40.6%.
Also, GSS recorded an inflation rate for the locally produced items at 41. 9% while imported items hovered around 51.6 %
However, the latest statistics released by the GSS indicate that prices of goods and services have decreased by 1.2% between February and March 2023 whereas food and non-food inflation has recorded a deflation of 0.9% to 1.5% respectively.
By Leonora Enyonam Annoh | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
