Deputy Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, has blamed Ghana’s high cost of living on the country’s uncontrolled market pricing system.

Dr Otoo said prices of goods and services were increased frequently while workers’ salaries remained unchanged for long periods, continuously weakening their purchasing power.

"On one hand, incomes are not moving the way they ought to move, but prices are moving faster than the rate of income increases," he said.

He argued that Ghana’s pricing system did not conform to conventional economic principles and exposed consumers to unjustified price increases.

"The way people increase prices in Ghana, it differs from conventional economic wisdom," he said on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Tuesday, August 25, while discussing the cost of living in the country.

Dr Otoo noted that although Ghana operates a market economy similar to those of the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, those countries have regulatory mechanisms to prevent unfair pricing and protect consumers.

"Even though we are operating a market system, we borrowed that market system from somewhere, from the UK, America and Canada. But you don't see them increase prices the way we do," he said.

He consequently called for tighter market regulation to control arbitrary price increases, safeguard workers’ incomes and ease the growing financial burden on Ghanaian households.