Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has questioned the credibility of Ghana’s January 2026 inflation rate of 3.8 percent, insisting that the figure does not reflect the actual cost-of-living pressures faced by ordinary Ghanaians.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced on Wednesday, February 4, that headline inflation dropped to 3.8 percent in January 2026, down from 5.4 percent in December 2025. This represents a 1.6 percentage point decline, which GSS attributed to easing price pressures in selected goods and services.
However, the Ofoase-Ayirebi Member of Parliament described the data as inconsistent with market realities. He said feedback from constituents and the wider public sharply contradicts the official statistics.
“As I am hearing that figure, I am also getting a lot of messages from people who are saying that what they see on the market doesn’t exactly correspond with that,” Oppong Nkrumah stated.
He added that Parliament would invite the Government Statistician to appear before the relevant committee to provide further clarification and allow lawmakers to interrogate the methodology and data behind the reported decline.
“I am sure when the government’s statistician appears before us [Parliament], we will have an opportunity to interrogate the data that they have and match it to what is really happening on the market,” he said.
Oppong Nkrumah emphasised that ordinary Ghanaians, who purchase food items and basic necessities from local markets daily, are in the best position to judge whether inflation has truly fallen to 3.8 percent.
“Ghanaians buy from the markets, and they will be the best judges to tell us whether what they are experiencing on the market is 3.8% or not,” he remarked.
The MP further criticised the government’s inflation management strategy, arguing that current policies are overly focused on sterilising money supply rather than tackling supply-side constraints and production challenges in the economy.
“What the government is doing to achieve this inflationary target is not actually tackling the supply side; it is actually sterilising a lot of money from the system,” he noted.
Oppong Nkrumah stressed that while inflation figures must be technically accurate, they should also align meaningfully with the everyday economic experiences of consumers across the country.