A former Deputy Minister of Finance under the Mahama administration, Ms Mona Quartey, has raised issues with how the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) calculates inflation rate.

She explained that at a time local food prices were going up during the lock down period in the wake of the COVID-19, the inflation rate, as reported by the GSS, was going down instead of rising.
Ms Quratey suggested to the GSS to have a second look at the way inflation figures are calculated.

“One of the things that have been touted as doing well is inflation. That our inflation is going down, we are experiencing single-digit inflation. I would like all of us to unpack what goes into calculating that inflation rate”, she told Accra based Class FM on Thursday july 23.

“In Ghana, the way we calculate our inflation is heavily weighted on imported food items, and if you noticed, during this COVID times, there wasn’t enough imported items coming in – the chicken, the tin tomatoes and the others, that are imported, we’re feeding more on local”, she noted.

“Therefore, local food prices went up, so, when they were showing inflation at 7 or 8 per cent, people were asking: how can inflation be at 8 or 9 per cent when prices of foods have gone up?” she asked.

“It is because the inflation calculation is heavily weighted on imported food items rather than locals; we need to look at that methodology again”.

“GSS, we need to look at how we calculate inflation so that it tells the true story.”