Gov’t is giving flimsy excuses for the economic mess – Sammy Gyamfi

The National Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Sammy Gyamfi has said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been giving flimsy excuses for the challenges that the local economy is going through.

He noted that every government communicator has been blaming the challenges on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as well as the Covid -19.

But, in his view, they are aware that these global factors have very little to do with the domestic challenges.

His comments come after a Presidential Staffer, Dennis Miracles Aboagye said on the Key Points show on TV3 Saturday August 13 that the challenges facing the Ghanaian economy are as a result of global factors including the warfare.

Miracles Aboagye indicated these factors have been affecting not only Ghana but other countries including Turkey whose inflation rate, he said, has shot up.

But responding to him on the same show, Sammy Gyamfi said “what makes the hardship even more painful is, we have people who, instead of taking responsibility for their mess, mismanagement and recklessness, always make flimsy excuses for the problems that we have on our hands.

“Every NPP communicator is either blaming the problem on Covid-19 or Russia and Ukraine when they know the the root problem has very little to do with these global problems.”

He added “the ever depreciating Ghana cedi, today it is the worst current in Africa according to Bloomberg, and the second worse currency in the world. Was this caused by Covid and Russia Ukraine war?”

The discussion hovered around the increasing rate of inflation.

A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr Patrick Asuming who shared his views also on the same show told Ghanaians to expect inflation, especially food prices, to remain high for a long time.

This, according to him, is due to the challenges with the harvest season.

Inflation rate for the month of July 2022 was 31.7 per cent, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced on Wednesday August 10.

This is up from the 29.8 per cent recorded in June.

On year-on-year basis, the difference between Food inflation (32.3%) and Non-food (31.3%) was 1 percentage points.

On month-on-month basis, food inflation (3.3%)  records a higher rate than non-food (3.0%), leading to 0.3 percentage point difference.

The percentage point increase in Non-food inflation (2.1) between June and July 2022 is higher than food inflation (1.6).

The percentage point difference between inflation for imported items (33.9%) and locally domestic items (30.9%) was 3%.

Dr Asuming said “the high inflation is going to stay with is for a while, we all have to accept the highest inflation in the region we are seeing is going to be with us for sometime.”

He stressed “Ghanaians must condition their minds that food prices are not going to come down any time soon.”