Statistics On Inflation Does Not Reflect Standards Of Living

The Leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dan Lartey says majority of Ghanaians will be enthused by real changes which will lead to profound improvement in their standards of living and not statistical evidence of progress of the country's economy.“Ghanaians are not interested in statistical evidence of progress; what we will be interested in is the execution of good programmes which will remarkably transform our living standards,” he said.

Reacting to claims that Ghana had hit an inflationary target of 9.9 per cent Mr Lartey asked, “Where is the proof of the target in the living standards of the people?” According to the GCPP Leader, the sharp reduction in the inflationary rate should have impacted positively on the lives of the people but regretted that the poverty situation of the broad masses of the people had rather worsened.

Mr Lartey said even though the defunct government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was able to chalk a single digit inflation of nine per cent, the situation did not bring about a corresponding improvement in the living conditions of Ghanaians. “It is for this reason that the NDC was shown the exit in the 2000 election and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) voted into power, but the situation has remained unchanged,” he said.

He said the importation of basic staples such as maize and rice, coupled with the incessant demand for wage increases, rising utility tariffs and massive unemployment, was an indication that all was not well with the economy.

“The mass exodus of our professionals to other countries could be reduced to the barest minimum if conditions of life were tolerable,” the GCPP Leader said. He called on the government to undertake a thorough assessment of development in the country, since that would enable it to come to terms with the genuine problems confronting the people, especially those in the three northern regions and the Central Region.

Mr Lartey said surveys carried out by recognized bodies indicated that the poverty situation in those areas had worsened and for that matter it needed serious interventions by the government by way of developing the human resource base and opening up the economy in those areas to provide employment for people resident in those regions.

He said it was ironic that the government ignored and rejected the GCPP's concept of domestication to alleviate the sufferings of the people and build a buoyant and self-supporting economy. The GCPP Leader called on Ghanaians to give the party the mandate in the next general election to effect the real changes that would bring about material prosperity.