A Statistical Victory, A Street-Level Struggle — Inflation Hits 3.3% as Organised Labour Questions Purchasing Power

The Ghana Statistical Service has announced a headline-grabbing achievement: inflation has plummeted to 3.3% for February 2026, marking the 14th consecutive month of decline and the lowest rate since the Consumer Price Index rebasing in 2021. However, political critics and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are sounding the alarm. They argue that this single-digit inflation is highly deceptive. The drop is largely attributed to the Bank of Ghana's exceptionally tight monetary policy—aggressively restricting money in circulation—rather than genuine structural improvements, reduced fuel costs, or lower production expenses.

You don't eat statistics. For the average market woman at Makola or the trotro driver at Circle, "3.3% inflation" means nothing when the absolute price of a tin of milk or a liter of petrol remains exorbitantly high. The government's macroeconomic victory is masking a severe microeconomic crisis: consumer purchasing power has been decimated. Easing inflation only means prices are rising slower, not dropping back to pre-crisis levels.