An Economist, Prof Peter Quartey has called for the management of expectations about price increments in goods and services in the country.

Speaking on the Business Edition of PM Express, he indicated market players may take advantage of the situation to hoard products if expectations of citizens’ are continually raised.

This, according to him, would not augur well for Ghanaians.

“So we need to really discuss this very well and manage people’s expectation about future price increase otherwise there is that expectation that prices are going to continue to increase that will be a problem,” he said.

He further cited an incident where prices of goods surged during the lockdown as a result of Covid-19.

“If you recall during the first few weeks of the lockdown, we saw people hoarding foods and other stuffs and that led to price hikes but later that moderated,” he stated.

Mr Quartey also called for the support of local production and value chain processes in agriculture as a way of minimizing price expectations.

“You don’t just support seed and leave marketing and input. The total value chain in agriculture, as well as industry, will have to support so that there will be backward and forward linkages.

“Whatever we produce locally within the agric sector can be passed to the industrial sector to add value and that will minimize price expectations.”

He added that “the mid-year review of the tax system will tell us whether we need to maintain these taxes and levies or find other means of raising revenue” in the country.”