Prof. John Gatsi, the Dean of Unviersity of Cape Coast School of Business is asking the managers of Ghana’s economy to take the recent high infaltion seriously noting that the April 2022 CPI was influenced by food-related inflation with imported inflation almost at par with domestic inflation.
In an article, whiles calling for the enactment of “revenue collateralization law, deal with policy failure issues in the April 2022 inflation figures“, Prof. Gatsi is urging the government to take a serious look at “policy re-examination and not the usual blame game pointing at imported inflation because the data revealed both local and imported inflation have increased over the period.”
According to him, has shown that “A number of local “foods” from cereal, grain and vegetables among fifteen items with the higher weight of inflation such as maize, corn dough, watermelon, okro and wheat among others are not less that 54% inflation over the period.” adding “Food prices have experienced an upward trend over the past 4 years.”
For him, “The above should trigger an examination of our agricultural policies in terms of producing at a cheaper cost and made available to the domestic market for industrial and household consumption at relatively lower prices. Agricultural policies must feed into price stability programs. Inflation in advanced economies should not be our strength to shift blame. The level of inflation and pass-through effects of monitory and fiscal policy choices with eminent significant upward tariff review for water and electricity will lead to further increases in the rate of inflation, monetary policy hike that will increase already high lending rates and possible pressure on the exchange rate.”
He emphasized that the “Continuous uncontrollable fiscal policy engagement poses an enhanced risk of fiscal burden that must be checked.”
Inflation in Ghana has hit 23.6% in the month of April, the highest in the country in the past 18years raising serious concerns about the competence of the managers of the country. In recent times, the government has consistently blamed the current hardships in the country mainly covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for which the Russian government was forced to dismiss the claims of the government saying the difficulties in the country started far before the war.
Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a global issue that affects almost every country but the inflation figures of Ghana’s immediate neighbors remain much lower.
| Months | Ghana | Burkina Faso | Cote d’Ivoire | Togo |
| January | 13.9% | 7.2% | 5.6% | 7.4% |
| February | 15.7% | 10.1% | 4.6% | 8.5% |
| March | 19.4% | 13.5% | 4.5% | 8.7% |
| April | 23.6% | 15.1% | – | – |
Inflation Figures of Ghana and its immediate neighbors January 2022 to April 2022
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com