High inflation rate not surprising; signal that world economies are rebounding post covid — John Kumah

Deputy Minister for Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah has stated that, the current inflation rate does not really come as a surprise as it was expected since even US is said to have its inflation rate at 8.5%; a record high in 41 years.

Currently, food prices have pushed Ghana’s inflation rate to 23.6%, the highest since 2004.

Speaking on the ‘AM show’ on Joy News today, Mr. Kumah stated the US inflation is a signal that the world economies are also rebounding post COVID-19.

He indicated that, government anticipated just about a 10% inflation rate however, its skyrocketed to above 20% and that does not come as a surprise as the world is recovering from the COVID-19 economic downturn.

He said the current state was expected.

Answering the question posed by the host, Benjamin Akakpo if the current inflation rate was expected Mr. Kumah said “yes, we expected it. Yesterday, a similar announcement came through that the US is doing 8.5% and it’s the highest in 41 years. I think all this is a signal that the economies of the world are actually rebounding out of COVID and it’s a necessary process to go through from the difficult economic downturn we all experienced.”

He continued “for us, we didn’t anticipate to reach that far. With some plus or minus we were hoping to stay around 10% or just around that, but unfortunately is gone as high as 23% and we are not surprised as it is part of the rebounding process every economy has to go through to get better.”

He added that it will be good to know the cause and how to guide stakeholders in finding a way out.