A new survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that about 90 percent of local businesses recorded poor sales.

The survey dubbed “COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker Wave 1” gives a general overview of the performance of businesses and localities during the lockdown period.

The GSS indicated that about 72 and 90 percent of local businesses saw reduction in production and sales respectively.

“As a result of the lockdown in Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi including the Awutu Senya East, most businesses saw reductions in production (71.7%), sales (89.7%) and labour supply (36.0%).”

Furthermore, businesses faced labour shortages and high cost of credit during the lockdown.

Prices of almost all products increased with food and non-alcoholic beverages experiencing the highest price increase of 4.8 percent.

GSS further stated that although various containment measures have been put in place to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, it is evident that the pandemic has had an adverse effect on businesses and the local economy.

The COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker Wave 1was conducted with 2700 localities in the country from May to June 2020.

Out of the total number of localities surveyed 554 of them are in districts that were in lockdown areas.

1169 were in districts that share international borders with other countries (border districts) and 1047 were neither in lockdown nor border districts.