[ 2021-02-08 ]

Ghana ranked 4th with highest prices of consumer goods

Source: Charles Nixon Yeboah

Among five sub-Saharan African countries that
Standard Bank, parent company of Stanbic Bank
Ghana undertook a Consumer Insight Report, Ghana
was ranked 4th with the highest prices of
consumer goods.

The nation surveyed were South Africa, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana.

The country placed 4th ahead of Kenya, which was
5th in most of the consumer goods categories.

When it came to the Food Basket group, the two
kilogrammes of rice sold in Ghana was the second
most expensive, ahead of Kenya.

But one loaf of bread is more expensive in the
country than the other four countries.

However, for cooking oil, Nigeria registered the
most expensive price, ahead of Ghana.

The same trend was seen within the Home and
Personal Care categories.bGhana again placed 4th
in most of the items sold within the group.

Examples are toothpaste, body lotion and laundry
bar soap.

Whilst, body lotion was expensive in the country
than the rest of the four other Sub Saharan
African (SSA) nations captured in the report, the
price of roll-on in the country was less expensive
than in Nigeria and Kenya, but more expensive than
in South Africa and Kenya.

“Ghana is the second most expensive market with
Nivea body lotion distorting the basket. Both
Nigeria and Ghana sold the 400ml bottle of body
lotion at least 28% higher than other markets”,
the report emphasised.

In all, South African basket price is on average
12% cheaper than all the markets visited by the
Standard Bank team.

Standard Bank said “Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria and South Africa were our focus countries.
We believe these continue to represent the biggest
consumer markets in SSA and represent scale and
prospects for potential investors. These
“Frontier Markets” represent 56% of households
and 71% of food sales across SSA.”

Importantly, the depreciation of the local
currencies of the respective countries also
contributed to the change in prices of the
consumer goods.

The report revealed that consumer baskets are
still dominated by staples rather than groceries,
home and personal care products. These prices also
impact in the measurement of the Consumer Price
Inflation.

Among the five nations, Ghana’s December 2020
inflation rate was ranked third, higher than
Nigeria and Ethiopia.

December 2020 inflation

Inflation ended the year 2020 by going up in the
month of December 2020 to 10.4%, a marginal
increase over that of November 2020, data from the
Ghana Statistical Service revealed.

This means prices of some goods and services went
up during the month of the Christmas festivity,
largely due to household and business spending.

Source - MyJoyonline

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