The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has commenced the Annual Household and Income Expenditure Survey (AHIES 2022) for selected households in the country.

The survey was launched following a 2-days’ virtual and 17-days’ face-to-face training of 280 Field Officers.

The Annual Household and Income Expenditure Survey (AHIES 2022) has the main objective of obtaining data to estimate quarterly and annual household final consumption expenditure to support the compilation Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Outcomes from the exercise include the rebasing of the GDP, the generation of data to support monitoring of targets under 12 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and continuous provision of indicators on the welfare of persons in Ghana.

Some of the key macroeconomic indicators to be generated from the survey include quarterly GDP, regional GDP, quarterly unemployment, graduate unemployment, underemployment, inequality, growth elasticity of poverty, consumption expenditure poverty and multidimensional poverty.

Further, the Annual Household Income Expenditure Survey - the first such panel survey - will provide important data on labour and welfare mobility to better understand some of the dynamics in the labour market and how households move in and out of poverty.

The GSS is therefore appealing to all selected households to accept, provide the needed assistance and volunteer the required information to the Field Officers for national development outcomes.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, appealed to all the Field Officers to strictly observe all the Covid-19 protocols and reminded them that the GSS was able to conduct the census at the height of the pandemic due to the adherence to the safety protocols.

“Professional solidarity that is a collective effort was required by all to collect data in the flawless manner is required to generate relevant and accurate statistics for decision-making” he stressed.

The representative of the World Bank, Paul Andres Corral Rodas, gave brief remarks on the benefits of the AHIES, saying, “this survey will support the release of quarterly labour force indicators and the panel component which will provide insight on vulnerability and movements in and out of poverty.