Policy Analyst and Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised questions over President Akufo-Addo’s assertion that Ghana's inflation rate between the end of 2019 and now increased by only five-fold.
According to the president, this rate is much lower than that of Togo which he implies increased by sixteen-fold, eleven-fold in Senegal, and seven-fold in Cote d’Ivoire within the aforementioned period.
“Between the end of 2019 and now, inflation in Ghana has increased by five-fold, in Togo by sixteen-fold, by eleven-fold in Senegal, and by seven-fold in Cote d’Ivoire."
"In truth, however, the fact that there are petrol queues in France does not make it more tolerable that the ‘trotro’ price from Kasoa to Circle has doubled in the past one year, nor does it make it any more tolerable that the price of cooking oil goes up every other week,” President Akufo-Addo indicated.
He continued, “It is important to state that mentioning the increases in prices worldwide is not meant to belittle the scope of suffering here, but simply to help us put things into some perspective, and, hopefully, learn some useful lessons about how other people are coping.”
Reacting to this assertion via Twitter, Bright Simons pointed out some "factual inaccuracies" in the figures mentioned by President Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation on the economy on October 30, 2022.
He wrote, “Minor issue: why the factual inaccuracies? No, inflation hasn’t increased by 16 times in Togo or eleven-fold in Senegal! Inflation has moved from 1.8% to 7.5% in Senegal. And 0.7% to 5.6% in Togo.”
“The figures are still so low that the impact on citizens is far lower than in Ghana,” the policy analyst added.
In a response to a tweet on the same subject, Bright Simons said, "A major presidential speech should NOT have elementary errors! And this did. Secondly, these movements are still within the single-digit band and also below the 8% range most central banks try to stay within. The comparison to our case is misconceived."
Meanwhile, Ghana’s current inflation is pegged at 37.2 percent in September 2022, making it the highest in 20 decades.
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Minor issue: why the factual inaccuracies? No, inflation hasnt increased by 16 times in Togo or eleven-fold in Senegal! Inflation has moved from 1.8% to 7.5% in Senegal. And 0.7% to 5.6% in Togo. The figures are still so low that the impact on citizens is far lower than in Gh. pic.twitter.com/T20hWUPaIh
A major presidential speech should NOT have elementary errors! And this did. Secondly, these movements are still *within the single digit band* & also below the 8% range most central banks try to stay within. The comparison to our case is misconceived.
Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons