By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Ghana Statistical Service has launched Ghana’s first-ever Food Price Variability Report to give an overview of the prices of selected food items within and across the 16 administrative regions.
The report puts the Greater Accra region as being the most expensive in terms of food prices, having ranked as the highest in six out of the 10 considered food items.
The launch of the report coincided with the announcement of the May 2023 Consumer Price Index and Inflation.
The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Anim, who jointly launched the report with the Pro Vice Chancellor of the Kumasi Technical University, Professor Gabriel Dwomoh, explained that, the study of the trends of the price variation of the selected food items is to help consumers, retailers and producers make informed decisions as to which market or region to patronize.
He disclosed that, conclusion drawn from analysis of the data showed that ‘commodities with standard packaging have less price variations across the regions’ suggesting that adherence to standard metrics could help stabilize prices and food inflation in country.
The report analyzes the price variations in 10 selected food items in all of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions and also explores the trend in food prices between January 2022 and April this year.
The report also indicates absolute prices and price differentials within and across the regions.
Prof. Gabriel Dwomoh stressed that the data as periodically churned out by the Ghana Statistical Service is reliable, accurate, and not borne out by any individual’s or group’s parochial interest.
Among the 10 selected food items are cassava, imported rice, milk, millet, and bread. The others are plantain, tomato paste, yam, cooking oil and beef the greater majority of which are available in all the regions except millet which is in only five of the 16 regions.
The report puts Greater Accra as the most expensive region for the selected food items, followed by the Western North, Ahafo and Eastern regions with Upper West being the least expensive region in terms of average food prices.
This is the first time ever that the Ghana Statistical Service has officially announced its Consumer Price Index and Inflationary figures outside of the national capital.
