Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Karaga, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has projected that Ghana’s inflation rate will reach 15 per cent by the end of 2024.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Accra, he highlighted the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration’s efforts in managing inflation despite economic challenges, noting that the current government has achieved significant reductions in inflation rates since taking office in 2017.
Dr. Amin Adam compared the current inflation rate to that of the previous National Democratic Congress administration, which recorded inflation rates of 17.7 per cent in 2015 and 15.4 per cent in 2016. In contrast, he noted that the NPP government achieved a single-digit inflation rate of 9.4 per cent in 2018 and 7.9 per cent in 2019, marking a historic feat of two consecutive years of single-digit inflation.
However, Dr. Amin acknowledged that the Russian-Ukraine war led to a global surge in inflation, affecting Ghana’s rate, which peaked at 54 per cent in 2022. Despite this, he asserted that the government’s efforts have brought inflation down to 22 per cent in June this year, a reduction of over half in 17 months.
Dr. Amin expressed determination to end the year with an inflation rate of 15 per cent and achieve single-digit inflation next year if the NPP remains in government.
“Inflation, the rate of inflation, headline inflation in 2015 was 17.7 percent. In 2016, it came to 15.4 percent. In 2017 when we took government, inflation came down further to 11.7 percent. A year later, in 2018, it became single-digit inflation at 9.4 percent. In 2019, we had a single digit of 7.9 percent,” he said.
He explained that “two consecutive years, the longest period a government has recorded a single-digit inflation. We have had single-digit inflation in the past, but for two consecutive years, 24 months of single-digit inflation was historic. Now when the Russian-Ukraine war started, again as I said, we saw global inflation growing and ours was also negatively affected. In fact, inflation went up to 54 percent in 2022.”
“But again see the efforts we have put in managing inflation in Ghana. In June this year, 17 to 18 months, we have brought inflation down to 22 percent. In 17 months, we have more than halved inflation from 54 percent to 22 percent and we are determined to end this year with an inflation rate of 15 percent. If this party continues in government next year, we are determined to bring inflation down to single-digit inflation next year,” he added.
