Prof Peter Quartey
Professor of Economics at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Peter Quartey, has expressed concern about the rising inflation rate.
From the beginning of the year, the Consumer
Price Inflation (CPI) rate has risen consecutively on three occasions.
The CPI, which measures the change over time in
the general price level of goods and services that households acquire for the
purpose of consumption, rose from 9 percent in January to 9.5 percent in April.
Speaking on the rising inflation rate, Prof
Quartey said even though the latest figure is still within government’s target
of ‘8 percent plus or minus 2’, there was cause for concern.
“I am concerned to some extent in the sense
that rising inflation is not a good signal. But then we expected this. If you
saw what happened in the exchange rate, I think that has fed into this trend we
are seeing. The rapid depreciation of the exchange rate in March especially has
to some extent fed into the inflation we are seeing now.”
On the way forward, Prof Quartey said it was
important for government to continue pursuing policies such as price stability
to help stabilize the inflation rate.
“Going forward I expect that government will
continue to pursue prudent fiscal policies and also the monetary sector, the
Central Bank will continue to pursue its price stability policy so that we stay
within the band. But anything above 10% will be off-target. Too much inflation
is bad. Some level of inflation is good; we certainly need some level of
inflation. Government has to spend so we ought to be cautious.”
Presenting the April 2019 inflation figures to
the press in Accra on May 15, Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat,
said the inflation rate was driven mainly by the prices of clothing and
footwear for non-food items and coffee, tea and cocoa for food items.
–Citibusiness
The post Economist Worried About Rising Inflation appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
