{"id":864354,"date":"2025-07-23T00:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/tariffs-up-costs-up-wages-flat-prof-asuming-says-real-recovery-still-far-off\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T00:12:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:12:04","slug":"tariffs-up-costs-up-wages-flat-prof-asuming-says-real-recovery-still-far-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/tariffs-up-costs-up-wages-flat-prof-asuming-says-real-recovery-still-far-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Tariffs up, costs up, wages flat \u2013 Prof. Asuming says real recovery still far off"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tariffs are rising. Production costs are going up. But wages? They\u2019ve barely moved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the reality Ghanaian businesses and households are grappling with, according to economist Professor Patrick Asuming, who shared sobering insights in an interview.<\/p>\n

Prof. Asuming warned that while headline figures such as inflation and macroeconomic indicators may suggest progress, the lived experience of most Ghanaians tells a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have to understand that prices are climbing,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, the rate of increase has slowed \u2014 from around 18% to about 10% \u2014 but prices haven\u2019t declined. Things are still getting more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He made it clear that the drop in the Producer Price Index (PPI) does not mean a reversal in prices, only a slowing in the pace of increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t expect that the decline in inflation means that prices are coming down anytime soon,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

One major contributor to this pressure, he explained, is the continued rise in utility and input costs. \u201cThese tariffs keep going up, and it\u2019s a big element of the cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWages are not coming down either, and the domestic cost of production is rising.\u201d The message is clear: businesses are squeezed from all sides, and that strain is being passed on to consumers.<\/p>\n

While the Ghana cedi has strengthened and some financial indicators are looking up, the benefits are not being felt broadly across the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that the financial and monetary side of the economy has performed better, and the real side seems to be lagging behind,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n

Prof. Asuming acknowledged some gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment has been very quick to try and put its finances in order,\u201d he said, pointing to improvements in Treasury bill rates, foreign reserves, and some tailwinds from global commodity prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done well on the financial side,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that doesn\u2019t mean the broader economy is healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the first quarter GDP figures, he admitted they beat expectations but urged caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy is divided into 20 sub-sectors. Five saw a decline,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weightier sectors grew, and that helped pull up the overall numbers. But it\u2019s not uniform, and we need to be careful how we interpret the growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the ordinary Ghanaian, the disconnect between good macro numbers and tough day-to-day conditions is growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tends to give you some disconnect between how people are perceiving the real economy and the macro numbers they see,\u201d he said. \u201cHow might they be feeling in terms of their pockets?\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Asuming\u2019s message was consistent and clear: until tariffs stop rising, until costs stabilise, and until wages begin to move, most Ghanaians won\u2019t feel the impact of the recovery \u2014 no matter what the data says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 20, 2025, 9:36 AM Tariffs are rising. Production costs are going up. But wages? They\u2019ve barely moved. That\u2019s the reality Ghanaian businesses and households are grappling with, according to economist Professor Patrick Asuming, who shared sobering insights in an interview. Prof. Asuming warned that while headline figures such as inflation and macroeconomic indicators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27196,272],"tags":[6588,7553],"class_list":{"0":"post-864354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-costs","8":"category-tariffs","9":"tag-costs","10":"tag-tariffs"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}