Dr. Bawumia, the GSS, and Inflation

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• Johnson 11 years ago

  I wish all will follow your example

  I wish all will follow your example

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• Dantankwa 11 years ago

  Thanks Amegashie for your beautiful rendition. We need this sort of objective analysis to delicate matters such as GDP and inflation. They are the same macroecomic indicators that confront every government in power.
  
  As cl ...
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  Thanks Amegashie for your beautiful rendition. We need this sort of objective analysis to delicate matters such as GDP and inflation. They are the same macroecomic indicators that confront every government in power.
  
  As clear as your explanation of the constituents of inflations are, I am not quite certain if I have grasped everything you said. For many ordinary Ghanaians such as me, we are more inclined to agree with Bawumia, not necessarily because he is right, but because his position is vindicated by our own experience in the market. Several of the items in the inflation basket such as Milk, Sugar, and so on, have more than double since 2013.
  
  Perhaps as you indicated more transparency on the part of the GSS regarding the prices they used in compution their CPI would help engender some confidence on their inflation figures.

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• Mankind 11 years ago

  Smart guy. Be blessed!!

  Smart guy. Be blessed!!

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• Kanewu 11 years ago

  This is what our professors in ghana should be doing. I've been waiting for someone to educate me on this and you've done it. Good luck Atsu in whatever you're doing

  This is what our professors in ghana should be doing. I've been waiting for someone to educate me on this and you've done it. Good luck Atsu in whatever you're doing

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• Wiafe 11 years ago

  Ghanaians are suffering and these numbers are meaningless for ordinary people. The GSS massages the data to paint a rosy picture. Bawumia as a former Dep. BOG Governor was a practitioner of those lies.
  
  The dependence on ...
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  Ghanaians are suffering and these numbers are meaningless for ordinary people. The GSS massages the data to paint a rosy picture. Bawumia as a former Dep. BOG Governor was a practitioner of those lies.
  
  The dependence on westernized macroeconomic models are distortive and of no use in countries like Ghana--where the informal sector is so huge.
  
  The inexact science of economics is a discipline structured to defend capitalism. No wonder all the tricks of the IMF and the World Bank always end up making us worse. Pseudo-capitalist countries like Ghana will always fare worse.
  
  No wonder Bawumia and Nii Moi are incapable of providing a realistic model for Ghana--so the best they can do is to engage the dark numbers.
  
  So far no economic model has been able to forecast how we can reduce or eliminate the killer problem of corruption.
  
  Ghanaians can't eat the statistics--no matter how rosy--they are all lies. They are meant to create a fantasy.

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• Rita 11 years ago

  POTAG and UTAG are on strike for the payment of their book and research allowance. Meanwhile, they cannot even offer us such analysis. Yet we have people in Ghana who will support their cause. How can Ghana move forward with ...
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  POTAG and UTAG are on strike for the payment of their book and research allowance. Meanwhile, they cannot even offer us such analysis. Yet we have people in Ghana who will support their cause. How can Ghana move forward with such mentality?

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• Yaw 11 years ago

  Do you think that if the Author was not adequately remunerated in Canada, he could have perfected the act of explaining inflation? He does research and his remuneration is adequate enough for him to conduct research, obtain d ...
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  Do you think that if the Author was not adequately remunerated in Canada, he could have perfected the act of explaining inflation? He does research and his remuneration is adequate enough for him to conduct research, obtain data and publish.

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• konfanko 11 years ago

  Informed piece

  Informed piece

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• Bright, China 11 years ago

  The question is....can we trust the data used in ariving at the rate of 5% for food?

  The question is....can we trust the data used in ariving at the rate of 5% for food?

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• NTIKUMA ANANSE 11 years ago

  THE NEXT SECOND JOHN MAHAMA WILL CALL HIM AND GIVE HIM A JOB AND AS USUAL WILL SHOW ACADEMIC BRILLIANCE AND NO PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS. IN 2014, GHANA STILL HAS OPEN GUTTERS CHOKED WITH DIRT AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE ...
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  THE NEXT SECOND JOHN MAHAMA WILL CALL HIM AND GIVE HIM A JOB AND AS USUAL WILL SHOW ACADEMIC BRILLIANCE AND NO PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS. IN 2014, GHANA STILL HAS OPEN GUTTERS CHOKED WITH DIRT AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATION GOES TO COLLECT DIRT, THOUGH HE HAS BEEN IN CHARGE FOR SIX YEARS. SO WHAT HAS ALL THE THEORITICAL, INTELLECTUAL ACUMAN THAT GHANAIANS TOUT SO MUCH, DONE TO HELP THE NATION DEVELOP?????? TILL DATE THE KORLE LAGOON IS CHOKED WITH GARBAGE AND STINKS, JUST AS IT WAS IN THE SIXTIES.

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• kofiga 11 years ago

  Assuming he accepts a jobs from JM and the government does not have the guts or balls to implement his recommendations,can the good young prof be blamed? Just figure it out. But let me assure you, he loves what he does too mu ...
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  Assuming he accepts a jobs from JM and the government does not have the guts or balls to implement his recommendations,can the good young prof be blamed? Just figure it out. But let me assure you, he loves what he does too much to muddle in politics steeped in corruption.At the same time he reserves the right to change him mind.

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• Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

  The funny thing about measurable economic indicators in Ghana, like everything else, is that any number we get is what those bean counters say they are. How do we measure productivity in Ghana and in what areas do those produ ...
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  The funny thing about measurable economic indicators in Ghana, like everything else, is that any number we get is what those bean counters say they are. How do we measure productivity in Ghana and in what areas do those productivity measurement take place? What is consumer price index (CPI) in a nation where prices do not have linkages to reality? Are any of those economic indicators formulated to exclude the wealth of Ghana's one percent who got their money stealing from the treasury? How about the relative disjoint between production on farms/fishermen and those in civil service? In Ghana numbers are what we want them to be and that goes to explain why the average wages of 98 percent of the workforce is around Gh2,500 cedis and yet land in metro area cost up to US $500,000 a plot.

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• Kwame Angel 11 years ago

  Thanks, Amegashie, for the good effort. Your piece has given Ghanaians (if they will read and take note) something to work with in the future. Second, it has also exposed the Statistical Service in the spurious way in which t ...
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  Thanks, Amegashie, for the good effort. Your piece has given Ghanaians (if they will read and take note) something to work with in the future. Second, it has also exposed the Statistical Service in the spurious way in which they compute their Inflation rate. First of all, why would the Statistical Service (SS), and NOT Bank of Ghana be releasing economic data. The Bank of Ghana is the main consumer of this important Economic data, just so they can advise the government (if we have one). The BOG has a whole Research Department (presumably staffed with economists and Statisticians). What the hell do they do? The problem with the SS output is the input data itself. To say that food prices increase by 5% in 2014 is complete nonsense. Ask any housewife to give you the real data. The other problem with the SS data is seasonality. In a country in which agriculture depends solely on mother nature, it is in the interest of anyone who wants to see low inflation rate to take advantage of the high seasonality of food production and release numbers in the rainy season. This is called Spurious Statistics. The Statistical Service has given Bank of Ghana absolutely nothing to work with for policy formulation and advise to the government. Interest rates in the country hover around 30 - 35%; the currency has fallen, year-to-year more than 40%. No matter what basket of goods the Statistical Service goes out to buy on the market, would they still insist that inflation in Ghana is 15.3%? This is neither in theory or in practice. They - and the government - can hide inflation, simply because that is the invisible one. What they can not hide is the fall of the currency and the rate at which businesses borrow.

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• B Kanton 11 years ago

  Fantastic and grt intellectual discourse of this very important but vexed subject matter. The government spoke persons, GSS and BOG shd all read this article and emulate Mr Atsu Amegashie. We simply need more of this intellec ...
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  Fantastic and grt intellectual discourse of this very important but vexed subject matter. The government spoke persons, GSS and BOG shd all read this article and emulate Mr Atsu Amegashie. We simply need more of this intellectual, unbiased and depoliticized write ups.
  
  Many thanks !

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• Mawuli 11 years ago

  What a brilliant gentle man. Thank God your intellectual brilliance have driven the partisans away from your article hence 99% of the comments here are full of praise.
  
  Please we are hungry for more insightful articles such ...
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  What a brilliant gentle man. Thank God your intellectual brilliance have driven the partisans away from your article hence 99% of the comments here are full of praise.
  
  Please we are hungry for more insightful articles such as yours on Ghanaweb.
  
  God bless you all.

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• Jorotara 11 years ago

  Thank you Atsu, for coming out with this elucidating work. Do come out, please, with more of them.

  Thank you Atsu, for coming out with this elucidating work. Do come out, please, with more of them.

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