Nearly 850,000 Ghanaians pushed into poverty in 2022 over inflation – World Bank Report

The World Bank has projected that some 850,000 Ghanaians were pushed into poverty in 2022 due to the rise in inflation.

Ghana’s inflation soared to a 30 year high in 2022, peaking at 54.1% in December 2022.

But accessing the impact of soaring inflation on food security and poverty the world bank says it works with the Ghana Statistical Service has disclosed 850,000 people were pushed down the poverty line.

Close to 850 thousand individuals are estimated to have been pushed into poverty during 2022 on account of larger-than-expected rise in prices. Most Ghanaian households are estimated to have experienced a deterioration in living standards, particularly toward the end of 2022, portions of the report asserts.

Results suggest that the increase in prices between January 2022 to December 2022, all other things equal, led to an average purchasing power loss of 15.7 percent. The poorest 20 percent of the population lost 16.1 percent of their purchasing power to inflation in 2022, while the richest 20 percent lost 15.5 percent in 2022, the report added.

The reports also adds that Household purchasing power losses became more pronounced toward the end of the calendar year as inflation heightened at the end of 2022.

“Accounting for inflation in the first quarter of 2022 alone, it is estimated that households in Ghana lost 3.7 percent of their purchasing power on average. However, when accounting for inflation over the whole year, the estimated loss of purchasing power is as high as 15.7 percent. Quarterly inflation in the first quarter of 2022 was 6.5 percent, while yearly inflation in 2022 was 32 percent. The shock from inflation became worse during the course of the year and many households were likely to resort to dilapidated savings and assets which were already spent during the COVID-19 pandemic”, the world bank says