Ghanaians face a dire cost of living crisis
Ken Thompson claims that Ghanaians are facing a dire cost of living crisis.
The CEO of Dalex Finance illustrated this claim by showing that prices of basic food items had gone up by huge amounts since January 2022 e.g., a carton of Frozen Chicken had risen from GHS 120.00 to GHS 250.00(108%), a 5kg bag of Royal aroma rice from GHS 32.00 to GHS 58.00 (81%), 1 litre of Frytol from GHS 16.00 to 30.00 (88%).
He further showed that the Ghana Cedi had lost 25% of its USD value in the last 30 Days (from 8.71 to 10.05 to 1.00 USD).
Even worse was the fact that Ghana Cedi had lost 66% of its USD value in the last 12 months (from 6.00 to 10.05 to 1.00 USD).
He said there had been a huge erosion of Ghanaians purchasing power in the last 12 months and most were not able to cope with the rise in cost of living.
Companies are facing collapse of their business because of the sharp, sudden drop if real value of their working capital combined with incendiary inflation.
Importers were first in line in the league table of companies most at risk of collapse.
The average Ghanaian was struggling just to put food on the table and if you had children your situation was particularly dire if that child fell ill.
Gen M Syrup (for malaria) had gone up from GHS 15.00 to GHS 35.00 (133%), Calpol syrup (for fever) went up from GHS 42.00 to GHS 85.00 (102%).
Amoxiclav syrup (for infections) rose from GHS 30.oo to GHS 50.00 (67%).
These views were expressed in a wide-ranging interview with Moro Awudu on ‘Inside Pages’ on Metro TV on Saturday 17 September.