APA – Accra (Ghana)
The drop in inflation rate to 26.4 per cent in November 2023 from 35.2 in October 2023, which is the lowest in 13 months, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rate fell to 26.4 per cent in November 2023 from 35.2 in October 2023, the lowest in thirteen months, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.
The November 2023 inflation rate represents 8.8percent¬age point decrease relative to the rate recorded in October 2023.
Month-on-month inflation between October 2023 (0.6 per cent) and November 2023 was 1.5 per cent.
After hitting 50.3 per cent in November last year, and peaking at 54.1 per cent in December same year, the country’s inflation rate has been falling to the current rate of 26.4 per cent.
The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel K. Annim, addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, said the food inflation was the major contributor to the drop in inflation during the period under review.
Food inflation, he said, fell by 12.6 percentage point to 32.2 per cent in November from 44.8 per cent, with month-on-month change rate of 0.8 per cent.
He said live animals, meat and other parts of slaughtered land animals (38.5 per cent), vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses (35.9 per cent), ready-made food and other products (28.2 per cent) drove the November 2023 food inflation rate.
Prof. Annim said non-food inflation fell by six percentage points to 21.7 per cent in November from 27.7 per cent in October, with a month-on-month change rate of 2.2 per cent.
He said housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (21.5 per cent), transport (11.5 per cent) drove the November 2023 non-food inflation rate down.
Inflation for locally produced items fell to 26.1 per cent in November from 34.4 per cent in October, while inflation for imported items also declined to 27.1per cent in November from 37.0 per cent in October.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye yesterday cut sod to commence a US$200 million World Bank funded project aimed to curb flooding in communities along the Odaw river basin.
The first phase of the project involves the development of primary and secondary drains, access roads, solid waste management facilities, and extension of security lights, and water supply networks at Alogboshie in the Okaikwei North Municipality.
Similar infrastructure will be developed in the coming weeks at Akweteyman and Nima, the remaining two beneficiary flood-prone low-income settlements under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project.
Mr Asenso-Boakye said in addition to enhancing public service provision in the community, the project was expected to drastically reduce the perennial flooding chal¬lenges in Alogboshie and serve as a pathway to progress.
He said the projects was a testament to the government’s commitment to enhancing access to basic social infrastructure, improving public service provision and reducing the vulnerability of priority low-income communities within the Greater Accra Region to flooding and other natural disasters.
He noted that the GARID project was making good strides with the ongoing resettlement of project affected persons preceding the construction of the storm drains from Nima-Paloma area through Asylum Down to the Odaw River channel, as well as the repair of the broken sections of the Odaw channel at Abofu, spanning the section from the Achimota Overhead Bridge to the N1 Overhead Bridge.
Similarly, he stated that, resettlement of project-affected persons by the proposed reconstruction of Kaneshie storm drains would commence in January following which works would proceed.
The Graphic reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has put a proposal before Parliament to review the current charges for passport application from GH¢100 to GH¢400.
The proposal, which is currently being considered by the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, is to enable the ministry to curb losses in the printing of passport booklets.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, who made this known in Parliament on Thursday, said “It is time for Ghanaians to pay realistic prices for passports they acquire to travel beginning next year.
She said it due to financial constraint prevailing in the economy, it had come to a point where it was no longer “sustainable” for the state to continue to subsidise passports.
“Ghanaians pay just about GH¢100 for a passport yet to produce one passport booklet it costs GH¢400 which means that for every passport that an applicant acquires, the government has to put in GH¢300 and this is not sustainable,” she said.
The minister stated this ahead of the approval of the GH¢1.127 million budget estimates for her ministry.
The newspaper says that former President John Dramani Mahama, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has pledged to tackle the housing struggles of teachers by building affordable homes if elected in the 2024 election.
Expressing empathy for teachers grappling with the 2-year advance rent scheme, Mr. Mahama vowed to prioritize affordable housing as a key initiative to ease their burden and improve their well-being.
Mr Mahama was hopeful that through this policy, by the time they retire, they will have their own homes.
He underscored the commitment to affordability and the seriousness with which his administration would approach this initiative.
GIK/APA
Ghana: Press focuses on drop in inflation rate to 26.4% in November, others
