EconomyFact Check

UK’s inflation rate is not easing as claimed by NDC’s Communication Officer

Claim: National Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, claims that the UK is experiencing a downward trend regarding its inflation.

According to data from the UK’s Office of National Statistics, the country’s inflation rate has been rising since October 2021.

Full Text

The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, has said that inflation is easing in the United Kingdom.

He made the claim during a panel discussion on TV3’s The Key Point show on Saturday, August 13, 2022. 

Sammy Gyamfi was responding to comparisons made by Dennis Edward Aboagye, a presidential staffer with responsibilities for local government, decentralization and rural development, about the rising inflation rate in some of Ghana’s trade partners such as Turkey, Brazil, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.

According to Dennis Aboagye, the factors driving the inflation in those countries are the same influencing Ghana’s situation.

But Sammy Gyamfi, who argued that the inflation rates in some of Ghana’s trade partners were still lower when compared to Ghana’s, said that the situation was getting better in the United Kingdom.

“For convenience, Edward cited just a few countries, and 90% of the countries he cited, the rate of inflation is significantly lower than in Ghana. Brazil’s rate of 10%, America’s inflation of 8.5% which is coming down by the way, and the inflation rate of the UK is coming down. You cannot use that to justify the point that the high rate of inflation we are experiencing in Ghana today is largely a result of global factors,” he said.

Sammy Gyamfi’s claim can be found between minutes 39:06 and 40:42 of the show which was livestreamed on Facebook and has since attracted 15K views.

Verification

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognized national statistical institute of the UK.

In investigating the claim, we relied on information from the ONS’ inflation data for the UK.

In its Consumer Price inflation bulletin for June 2022, it indicated that the “Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.4% in the 12 months to June 2022, up from 9.1% in May.”

The bulletin also reported that “the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 8.2% in the 12 months to June 2022, up from 7.9% in May.”

“Rising prices for motor fuels and food made the largest upward contributions to the change in both the CPIH and CPI 12-month inflation rates between May and June 2022,” the bulletin, released in July 2020, added.

We observed that since September 2021, the UK has been experiencing an increase in its inflation rates as can be seen in the areas marked red and blue.

The UK’s inflation rate for July 2022 has not been included in the analysis since it was neither available at the time the claim was made nor at the time of filing the report.

According to the OFN, its next bulletin which will have the current inflation data for July 2022 will be released on August 17.

It is worth noting that Sammy Gyamfi’s assertion that inflation has eased in the USA is true.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates the deceleration of the country’s annual rate.

The US’ inflation for July 2022 is 8.5%, down from the 9.1% it recorded for June this year.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

As can be seen on the chart, inflation has eased in the US.

Conclusion

Official data from the Office of National Statistics does not authenticate Sammy Gyamfi’s claim that the UK’s inflation is easing, although his claim about the US is true.

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