GUTA won’t reduce prices of goods for the next six months

Members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) say they are not going to reduce prices of goods for the next six months even though the cedi has started performing well against the major currencies.

Speaking on Atinka FM AM Drive with Kwame Adinkra, the Secretary of GUTA , Mr. Joseph Obeng explained that traders had already imported goods pegged at the previous “cedi-dollar rate” and that reducing prices of goods will affect their capital as well as profit.

"Reducing the price of goods and services now will affect our income and profits," Mr Obeng said.

According to him, if anything at all, prices will be reduced in the six months since they need to make up for “previous imports.”

The GUTA official advised the government to rather find ways to stabilize the cedi, adding that, in Ghana, many goods and equipment are imported and that it will be difficult for businessmen to maintain prices for a long period.

Responding to the assertion that traders have cultivated the habit of importing everything including goods which can be produced in the country thereby accounting for the poor patronage of Ghanaian goods, Mr. Joseph Appiah mentioned that countries such as the United Kingdom and the USA even import, insisting that members of GUTA do not import just anything.

“We import goods and services which are of good quality and are needed by the people of Ghana,” Mr Obeng said.

According to him, companies that are into manufacturing are not too many in the country hence the need to import. ‘Most of the goods and machinery used in the country are not manufactured so it is necessary to import,’ he said.