Economist and Finance Lecturer, Professor Godfred Bokpin, has challenged managers of the economy to tackle underlying pressures contributing to rising inflation.

Inflation for the month of January hit 13.9%, triggered by non-food items, particularly transport, housing, water and electricity.

Dr. Bokpin tells Joy Business the latest figure is a real reflection of the state of the Ghanaian economy.

“A lot of things are becoming clearer to and real to us in terms of the challenges the economy is going through; and the fact that inflation is inching up. That is largely expected because of certain developments in the economy”, he stressed.

“Essentially the fact that we are recording inflation practically outside the upper band of the Bank of Ghana [8+2%]”, it’s worrying”, he added.

On what to do to get the rates further down, Professor Bokpin said there is the need to look at the items that is triggering the high inflation rate.

“You want to look at the triggers – non-food inflation that is inching up and then food inflation, and see the underlying pressures.”

“So, overall, in terms of economic management, I think there is a lot that we have to do because once we do it, will reflect in this [downward inflation].

Rent and Transport prices push inflation up to 13.9%

The rising cost of Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (28.7%) as well as Transport (17.4%) pushed the rate of inflation for January 2022 to 13.9%, data from the Ghana Statistical Service revealed.

If the trend continues, lending rates as well as cost of living will go up further.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service, food inflation recorded a rate of 13.7%, higher than both last month rate (12.8%) and the average of the previous months (10.4%).