The Ghana Statistical Service, GSS, is hopeful that a new law to standardize weights and measurements will help in determining accurately, the rate of inflation in Ghana.
The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Annim, who disclosed this to Citi Business News, said the current regime makes it difficult to determine the relative increase in prices of goods especially when there is bumper harvest.
According to him, the Service is often compelled to yield to the discretion of sellers of the various items captured in the basket of goods to determine inflation.
This he says needs to be corrected with a legal backing.
“Anytime we go to the market to pick prices, they are largely informed by seasonalities and where we have the season for a particular food item depending on the harvest we have for a particular year, the prices are informed by that. Our sellers are not privy as to how variations in these weights inform the pricing,” Prof. Samuel Annim explained.
Citi Business News understands that the document is currently before cabinet awaiting approval by Parliament for passage into law.
“We are making a cabinet memo to look at the possibility of standardizing the use of weights of the items that we purchase on the markets,” the Government Statistician added.
Professor Annim is confident that a common weighing mechanism should benefit farmers, sellers as well as consumers.
He added that the legislation should also make inflation figures churned out by the GSS, reflect market conditions.
“So we think it is about time that as a country, there should be a legislation that all that we buy on the market should be weighed so that appropriate prices will be obtained and this will go in favour of both our farmers and the sellers of the produce in the market,” he concluded.