The Member of Parliament for South Dayi Constituency, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, on the JoyNews AM Show on June 29, 2023, has claimed that Ghana‘s current inflation rate is 54%.
According to the legislator, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led-government inherited 19% inflation from the previous government under the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“When you inherited the economy in 2017, do you know the inflation rate? It was 19%. You lambasted us. You came to Parliament to say that you brought inflation back to a single digit… Your minister came to sing praises. Today, it’s 54% he can’t talk,” Dafeamekpor asserted (locate the video – 1:12:28 to 1:13:19).
This fact-check report seeks to verify whether;
Fact-Check
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To verify this claim, GhanaFact will use data from the Ghana Statistical Service(GSS), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The GSS statistical bulletin published on January 11, 2017, indicated that the inflation rate at the end of December 2016 was 15.4%.
“The year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the CPI stood at 15.4 per cent in 2016, down by 0.1 percentage point from the 15.5% recorded in November 2016,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, the World Bank pegged Ghana’s 2016 inflation rate at 17.5%.
Therefore, the claim by the MP for South Dayi Constituency, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor that Ghana’s inflation rate at the end of 2016 was 19% is inaccurate.
Regarding the current inflation rate, GhanaFact findings show that Ghana’s inflation rate at the time the claim was made – June 29, 2023- was not 54%, and even more, it will be inaccurate to compare the annual inflation rate to a monthly rate.
The latest Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report published on June 14, 2023, showed inflation for May 2023 was 42.2%.
“For the month of May 2023, the rate of inflation stood at 42.2%, indicating a 1.0% upward increase in the rate of inflation between April 2023 and May 2023,” Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim said (locate video – 8:32 to 8:50).
However, inflation at the end of December 2022 was 54.1%, according to the Ghana Statistical Service, which will be the most statistically accurate rate to be used in doing the comparison ( annual inflation rate).
Verdict
The claims are inaccurate and FALSE.
Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu
