ACCRA - Last week, the statistics agency in Ghana, west Africa’s second largest economy, said the country’s inflation rate had climbed to 37.2%, a three point increase on the figure reported in September.
The new rate confirmed a concerning cost of living crisis in a country where consumer goods have become more expensive and the local currency is now the world’s worst performer against the US dollar according to Bloomberg.
Today, Ghanaian traders are responding to the soaring inflation and consequent high cost of doing business by locking their shops in a three-day protest.
Joseph Obeng, the leader of the Ghana Union of Traders Association, the country’s largest lobbying group for retailers, said in an address that the combined effects of high inflation, exchange and interest rates have “deeply eroded” business owners’ capital by over 50% this year.
