The latest Nielson Africa Prospects Report has revealed that the cost of living in the country is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa due to high inflationary pressures.
According to the report, “The cash outlay for Angolan and Ghanaian consumers are some of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. A like-for-like basket of essentials costs almost US$34 in Angola and US$27.50 in Ghana, compared to South Africa at US$15.33,” the report states.
“The composition of the consumer basket and spend is directly impacted by changes in the price of essential day to day goods. Inflation is one of the most realistic indicators of the conditions consumers face,” says the report.
What this essentially means is that because of the rising inflation in the country, consumers in Ghana spend more money in purchasing the same type of goods as compared to what other consumers spend on the same quantity of goods in other African countries such as Uganda, Lesotho, Kenya or South Africa.
The report further indicates that Ghana places last on the rank of nine best leading markets in sub-Saharan Africa — in the areas of macroeconomic prospects, business prospects, consumer prospects and retail prospects.
This, the report states, can be attributed to the impact of “weak mineral prices, power shortages and difficult financial conditions”.
Ghana was trailed by Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroun, South Africa, and Uganda.
Commenting on the report, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Economists, Ghana (ICEG), Daniel Anim-Prempeh, said the various indicators do not paint a good picture of the country’s future, and called on managers of the economy to consider ways of reversing these worrisome statistics.
“I think is not a good position considering the fact that Ghana is touted as the gateway to West Africa. If you look at the report, Cote D’Ivoire seems to be doing well in getting its fundamentals right. So we need to put things right to redeem our international reputation.
“We should be able to narrow our resources into projects that will have a ripple-effect on the national economy so that we can channel our resources into productive sectors of the economy.
“Government must also minimise borrowing from the domestic market so that the banks can be able to lend to the private sector at low rates and enable them to drive the economy to growth,” Mr. Anim-Prempeh.
The Africa Prospects Indicators (API) report provides a trended ranking of multi-dimensional, comparative indicators for nine of sub-Saharan Africa’s leading markets, where common measurement information is available. The report also assesses macro-economic and business prospects for a further 17 countries where extended metrics exist