End period inflation to miss target

Government’s end-year inflation target of 14.5 percent cannot be achieved considering the pass through effects from revised fuel prises, festive season and imported inflation, Mr. Michael Cobblah, Country Representative of Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) has said.

It rather expects an end of year inflation rate of 20 percent, which is far away from government target.

EDC’s forecast stands rather contrary to assessments by Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), an economic think-tank that government is likely to meet the revised end-year inflation target.

CEPA said inflation will fall further from the 18.37 percent recorded in September to 14.5 percent by the end of the year, in line with the inflation targeting objective of the central bank.

Inflation has remained stubbornly high despite sharp falls in oil prices. Long-term depreciation of the cedi has accelerated the pace of inflation, pushing up prices for imported goods.

Analyst are unhappy with the trend of inflation because of the socio-political costs in terms of output and real income levels, heighten the poverty burden.

Mr. Cobblah making a presentation in Accra advised government to continue to pursue fiscal discipline, which ensured the economy’s stability within the first three quarters of the year.

He said government must be courageous but balance the deregulation of fuel prices for a prudent utility tariffs regime.

Investing in efficient agriculture must also be taken seriously, whereas empowering the private sector as the main driver of growth.

He said available evidence pointed to a slowdown in the tempo of economic activity and the continued increase in poverty indicators.

He thus called for efficient and prudent project management to ensure that the Government gets value for money.

“One major challenge that analysts have cited as a major cause of the country's development woes is the lack of monitoring and evaluation of government's projects,” he noted.

“This has resulted in huge moneys being paid out to contractors who have nothing to show for the work they were supposed to have done,” he added.

Mr. Cobblah advocated the implementation of public-private partnership implementation of projects like schools and hospitals as well as their monitoring and evaluation.