Shift focus to transportation amid inflation drop – Govt Statistician to policymakers

Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim has cautioned policymakers against complacency, despite a significant drop in the inflation rate to 23.1% in May 2024, down from 25.0% in April 2024.

This call to action comes as Ghana’s inflation rate sees a 1.9 percentage point decrease between April and May 2024, a positive development for the economy with transport inflation a constant.

In an engagement with the media, Prof. Annim urged policymakers to shift their focus to transportation, which recorded a month-on-month inflation rate of 10.5%, rather than solely focusing on food inflation.

While food inflation contributed to the overall drop in the inflation rate, recording 22.6% compared to 26.8% last month, non-food inflation saw a slight increase to 23.6% in May 2024.

Inflation for locally produced items and imported items fell to 24.7% and 19.6%, respectively.

Prof. Annim emphasised the need for policymakers to address the consistent increases in transportation costs, which have a ripple effect on the overall inflation rate.

He stressed that the conversation should shift from food inflation to transportation, to find ways to slow down the increases in prices and possibly see reductions going forward.

“In this case what I want the media and policymakers to engage is not food inflation but in this case, transport where we are seeing month-on-month transport inflation of 10.5% when overall month-on-month is 3.2% and we all do appreciate how transport permits across the other items that we have in the basket for the competition.

“So the conversation that I really wish will be on the table going forward is how do we ensure that the consistent but slow increases in prices of food at other points would slow down and possibly see reduction going forward.”