Government statistician calls for policy shift to address rising transport costs amid inflation drop

A government statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, has cautioned policymakers against complacency despite a significant drop in the inflation rate to 23.1 per cent in May 2024, down from 25.0 per cent in April 2024.

This call to action follows a 1.9 percentage point decrease in the inflation rate, a positive economic development.

In a media engagement, Prof. Annim urged policymakers to shift their focus to transportation, which recorded a month-on-month inflation rate of 10.5 per cent, rather than solely focusing on food inflation. While food inflation contributed to the overall drop, recording 22.6 per cent compared to 26.8 per cent last month, non-food inflation saw a slight increase to 23.6 per cent in May 2024.

Inflation for locally produced items and imported items fell to 24.7 per cent and 19.6 per cent, respectively. Prof. Annim emphasized the need for policymakers to address the consistent increases in transportation costs, which have a ripple effect on the overall inflation rate.

“In this case, what I want the media and policymakers to engage in is not food inflation but, in this case, transport, where we are seeing month-on-month transport inflation of 10.5% when overall month-on-month is 3.2%. We all do appreciate how transport permits across the other items that we have in the basket for the competition,” Prof. Annim stated.

He stressed that the conversation should shift from food inflation to transportation to find ways to slow down the increases in prices and possibly see reductions in the future.

“The conversation that I really wish will be on the table going forward is how do we ensure that the consistent but slow increases in prices of food at other points would slow down and possibly see reduction going forward,” he added.