Two-thirds of households say their income has not recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that two-thirds of households indicate that their income has not recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The GSS in its COVID-19 Households and Jobs Tracker Wave 3, said only 26.7% of respondents indicated that their total household income stayed the same as compared to the period before COVID-19, March 16, 2020.

5.1% of respondents, according to the GSS, indicated that their total income increased, while 68.2% indicated that their household income decreased.

“Of the different sources of income, non-farm family business income saw the biggest reduction. 77.3% of households with income derived from a non-farm family business saw a decrease in income and only 4.4% reported an increase in income.

“The 4.2% of households who got income from pension saw the smallest change of this income source. 76.7% reported no change in pension income, 13.0% a reduction and 10.3% an increase.

The tracker also indicated that borrowing became more frequent coping strategies in 2021.

Approximately eighty-seven percent, 86.7%, of households used some sort of coping strategy to deal with the negative effects of COVID-19 since March 2020.
“The most common coping strategies included relying on savings (43.0%) and reducing food consumption (42.9%). Respondents reported that most types of coping strategies were used more often in 2020 than in 2021.

“The exception to this is the borrowing of friends and family and the use of credited purchases.”