The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has hinted of a possible shortage in items and goods as the country heads into the festive period in December. According to the Public Relations Officer of the Union, Joseph Paddy stated the recent economic challenges in the country have since resulted in less import activity at the ports. He attributed the development to the increasing cost of duty and freight charges occasioned by the persistent depreciation of the cedi against the US dollar. “Containers that are coming out of the port are nothing good to write home about. People are not importing, people are keeping their money because if you import you can’t sell and break even or even maximize. So, what we are going to see in the shortest possible time we are going to see a shortage of goods,” Mr. Paddy is quoted by Joy Business. “They rather prefer to keep their monies in Treasury bills rather than import and lose and due to the rising cost of living in the country, you seriously can’t import at that point and make profit. So, there is less import activity for many of our members”. “For instance, I went to the port just on [November 1, 2022] and it was an eye sore, no containers are coming out of the ports; even Golden Jubilee where they clear about 100 containers a day, when you go there now, it's just about two containers or 30 containers”, the GUTA PRO stressed. Meanwhile, many businesses have begun to fold due to the economic conditions in the country with Ghana currently in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for economic support programme. MA/FNOQ