Sierra Leone Telegraph: 22 October 2021
Sierra Leone’s year-on-year inflation stood at 11.63% in September, up from 10.88% in August, according to a press release published on Wednesday by Statistics Sierra Leone.
The prices of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotic (3.97%), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.05%), furniture, household equipment (2.4%), health (3.18%), communication (1.77%), transport (0.77%), education services (21.19%), recreation and culture (3.91%), restaurant and hotels (13.15%), and miscellaneous goods and services (5.38%) increased over the period.
However, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverage (1.60%), and clothing and footwear (0.86%) declined in September. It is not clear whether this decline was due to falling demand as household incomes stagnate and in some cases tumble.
Published courtesy of Sanusi Reseach.
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Cost of living is a global problem.No one can argue with that. But in the context of Sierra Leone, is nothing new, is a unique problem that have been with us for a long time. And since Bio was sworn in back in 2018, life for vast majority of our people have taken a turn for the worst. And right now there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Bio doesn’t want to change his one direction track, so the suffering of ordinary Sierra Leoneans goes on. Clearly, his government have lost the plot. House hold items, and inflationary pressures have always pushed food prices up, making it a near impossible task to eke a living in Bio’s Sierra Leone. But as always the sitting government will find someone to blame. Never in a million years, they will admit, the economic hardships the population is facing, is due to unchecked corruption and a lack of strong economic policies that will diliver growth, in the face of a Global recession. Covid19 have put many countries like ours that rely on the export of raw materials in sever economic strain. But putting all the blame on covid19, is completely missing the point.Bio and his government have to shoulder some blame.
The Bio government have shown they lack the willingness to think outside the box. And most importantly come up with the right economic policies that would have able to withstand any economic shocks that was lurking in the conner. Our country can only able to wriggle itself out of this economic morass we find ourselves, if we adopt economics policies that are grounded in reality, and sustainable for our long term economics goals. Since our primary export is raw materials, we should try and diversify our economy by investing in education, vocational training for the youths, and render economics assistance to our agricultural farmers. With out which, the prospect of an early economic recovery will be elusive as ever. Also invest in health, infrastructure like roads and bridgeds.
Plug the holes of wastage in government ministries, reduce the ever ballooning payrolls in the public sector, especially those that are appointed in their position because they are associates or friends of Bio, or the ones we call “PETE TE ROPE FAMBUL” that are not qualified for their jobs, but thanks to the accident of birth, they either comes from the same tribe like Bio or they claim to hail from the South of the country.
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