Former Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has questioned whether the January inflation rate of 3.8 percent reflects what consumers are actually experiencing in the markets.
Speaking in an interview at parliament, Oppong Nkrumah said he has received messages from Ghanaians suggesting that the figure does not match market realities.
“As I’m hearing that figure, I’m also getting a lot of messages from people who are saying that what they see on the market doesn’t exactly correspond with that,” he said.
He added that when the government statistician appears before Parliament, there will be an opportunity to scrutinize the data and compare it with real market conditions.
“Many of your viewers and listeners, they buy from the markets, and they will be the best judges to tell us whether what they’re experiencing on the market is 3.8 percent or not,” Nkrumah said.
The former minister also criticized government efforts to control inflation, saying they focus on removing money from circulation rather than addressing supply-side challenges.
“The government had sterilized about 60 billion Ghana cedis from the system. In other words, that money has been sucked out of the economy, so people who want to use it to conduct transactions can’t even access it,” he explained.
He added that while the government claims inflation has been reduced, many Ghanaians continue to feel the impact of higher prices in their daily purchases.
By: Jacob Aggrey
