[ 2012-05-16 ]

Cement price up by over 30% in four months - Report
While functionaries of the ruling National
Democratic Congress continue desperately to defend
the government’s badly bruised trumpeted economic
stability and the so-called attainment of
single-digit inflation, players in the building
industry certainly find the claim to be at sharp
variance with what pertains on the ground.

A market survey by the New Statesman indicates
that within a space of four months, the price of a
bag of cement has gone up by an average of 30 per
cent.

A bag of cement which sold for GHC16 in the
capital in February, this year, now sells for GHC
20, representing an increase of 25 per cent.

Our survey shows that outside the capital, in
places like Kumasi, Tamale, and Takoradi, a bag of
cement now costs between GHC21 and GH¢23, an
increase of 35 per cent and 37 per cent.

This is the reality at a time Ghanaians are made
to believe that the rate of inflation – being the
rate at which prices of goods and services
increase – has been sustained at below 10 per cent
for over 22 months.

Many Ghanaians find it difficult to relate the
single-digit inflation to the astronomical
increases in the prices of good and service in the
country.

During his recent lecture on the State of the
Economy, Vice Presidential Candidate of the New
Patriotic Party, Mahamudu Bawumia, noted that the
single-digit inflation being trumpeted by the
Mills-Mahama led government seemed to be at
variance with key economic fundamentals.

“The key question that is on the minds of many
Ghanaians is: “Do we really have single-digit
inflation in Ghana today?” While I do not want to
argue with or question the integrity of our hard
working officials at the Ghana Statistical Service
who do a good job under very difficult
circumstances, and should indeed be resourced (and
given more independence) to do the work they do, I
will like to state that the available evidence
indicates that statistically reported single digit
inflation is not consistent with the economic
fundamentals and developments in some key economic
indicators relating to the cost of living,
interest rates and exchange rates.

It could be a measurement issue, but the
established relationships between inflation and
key economic variables appear to have gone missing
for now,” the renowned economist explained.

Source - The New Statesman

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