The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, has disclosed that the current rate of inflation and other prevailing economic conditions will influence the Association's salary negotiations with government this year.

According to him, these elements will form the bases of the Association's agreements on the compensations for its workers.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, he asserted that workers must not be subjected to harsh conditions, therefore, there is the need for the income of workers to be commensurate with the increasing cost of living in the country.

"The change in prices of goods and services is at an all time high and this April inflation is the highest in 18 years. An indication that the worker is gradually getting worse off day by day. And like we said from inception, negotiation this year will be influenced by the inflation behaviour as one can put it.

Because you and I are aware about the proposals made to PURC by the water company and the electricity company. You and I are also aware of the escalating prices of transportation announced by the transportation organisation, just a fortnight ago. And of course general price increases of other goods and services.

Government's own transaction fee has gone up to a minimum of 15%. So this is an indication that all these will be factored into negotiations, so that at least, the worker is cushioned from some of these pressures", he explained.

Mr Angel Carbonu made these remarks on the back of the newly announced inflation rate for April, which stands at 23.6%; the highest to be recorded since January, 2004.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), four divisions – Transport (33.5%); Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (28.5%); Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (25.6%), and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (25.0%) recorded inflation rates above the national average of 23.6% with Transport recording the highest inflation.

National month-on-month inflation from March, 2022 to April 2022 was 5.1%.

Whilst Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation was 26.6%, Non-Food inflation stood at 21.3%.

April, 2022 food inflation (26.6%) was higher than both March, 2022 food inflation (22.4%) and the average of the previous 12 months (13.5%). Food inflation’s contribution to total inflation however, decreased from 51.4% in March, 2022 to 50.0% in April, 2022

All the 15 food subclasses recorded positive month-on-month inflation with fruit and vegetable juices recording the highest (15.3%).

For Non-Food inflation, year-on-year inflation on average went up again in April, 2022 compared to March 2022 (from 17.0% to 21.3%).

Only one out of the 12 Non-food Divisions had the 12 months rolling average to be higher than the year-on-year inflation for April, 2022 for the divisions.

Furthermore, the inflation for imported goods was 24.7% which is higher than the 17.3% recorded for March, 2022; while the inflation for locally produced items was 23.0% up from the 20.0% recorded in March, 2022. This is the first time in 29 months that inflation for imported items exceeded domestic inflation.

In announcing these figures, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Anim, used the occasion to call on policy makers to address the rising prices of goods and services in the country.

Upper East records lowest inflation rate of 18.4%

Meanwhile, the Upper East region recorded the lowest inflation rate of 18.4%. However the Central region registered the highest inflation rate of 26.7%.

Greater Accra recorded an inflation rate of 25.1%, whereas the Ashanti region recorded an inflation rate of 21.7%.

For the region with the lowest food inflation, Upper East topped with 18.1%, whilst the Upper West recorded the highest inflation rate of 38.5%.