Inflation Will Decline In 2014 � Vice Prez Amissah-Arthur

After months of experiencing double digit inflation, Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is predicting a decline to single digits from 2014. Government this year set an inflation target of 9% for the end of the year, but the Vice President in August admitted the target was not likely to be met. With barely two months to the end of the year, Inflation stands at 11.9%. Mr. Amissah-Arthur says the high inflation recorded this year is as a result of government�s plans to remove subsidies off petroleum products and utilities. �Inflation we think will go to the upper levels of the target but in a year, we think that it will come down. Inflation has being higher this year than anticipated because we are tackling the issues of subsidies so the prices have risen and impacted on inflation. But once that has been done and we have reestablished automatic price readjustment formula, we do not believe that there will be any impact of inflation,� he explained. The Vice President who was delivering the key note address at the opening of the Ghana Summit organized by the Economist Magazine also added that following rating agency Fitch�s downgrade of Ghana�s credit rating from a B+ to a B, government has taken measures to fix rising debt levels. He said: �In the last couple of weeks- the Fitch, I was surprised. Looking at the issues of fiscal consolidation, as I said, the budget has started tackling that through the removal of subsidies on water and utilities. We have started addressing the issues of government borrowing and rising debt levels, and trying to manage the debt.� The 2-day Ghana Summit brings together over a hundred stakeholders and investors from across the globe to discuss key economic issues, explore opportunities and find solutions to challenges confronting various sectors of the Ghanaian economy. The summit is under the theme �Turning Potential to Opportunities�