由Andy Senna Agbley和Walter Kwaku Kwakuah

从2006年后期开始，关于20-Pesewa硬币的微妙拒绝的消息开始酿造。加纳中央银行于2007年7月由保罗·阿莫福·阿克纳（Paul Amoafo Aceakah）博士领导，进行了大胆的货币政策改革：塞迪的重新安装。

A recent article in the Ghana Web publication highlighted the staggering price increases experienced by common food items over the past 17 years. For instance, a ball of kenkey that sold for 10 pesewas in 2007 is now going for GHS6—an astronomical 59,000% surge. Similarly, a sachet of water, which was 5 pesewas back then, now costs 40 pesewas.

加纳网络出版物最近的一篇文章强调了过去17年来普通食品的惊人价格上涨。例如，一个在2007年以10 pesewas售出的肯基（Kenkey）的球现在正在使用GHS6，这是一种天文数量为59,000％。同样，一小袋水（当时是Pesewas 5），现在花费了40个PESEWAS。

This extreme price escalation is a product of several converging factors, such as:

这种极端的价格升级是几个汇合因素的产物，例如：

The 2007 cedi redenomination, which aimed to simplify transactions by removing four zeros from the cedi and introducing smaller denomination coins for 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 pesewas.

2007年的CEDI重新启动，旨在通过从CEDI中删除四个零来简化交易，并以1、5、10、20和50 PESEWAS引入较小的面额硬币。

The integration of smaller denomination coins was meant to facilitate transactions with precision and minimize rounding practices.

较小的面额硬币的整合旨在促进精确的交易并最大程度地减少舍入实践。

Despite the initial optimism and nationwide sensitisation campaigns, smaller denomination coins soon fell into disuse as they steadily lost public acceptance.

尽管最初的乐观情绪和全国性的敏感运动，但较小的教派硬币很快被废弃，因为它们稳步失去了公众的接受。

By 2010, a growing number of consumers and vendors were refusing to accept coins below 10 pesewas, citing their perceived insignificance and inconvenience.

到2010年，越来越多的消费者和供应商拒绝接受低于Pesewas的硬币，理由是他们的无关紧要和不便。

This rejection of smaller coins had a cascading effect, as vendors began rounding up prices to the nearest 50 or 100, and coins were no longer used in calculating change.

拒绝较小的硬币具有级联效应，因为供应商开始将价格四舍五入到最接近的50或100，而硬币不再用于计算变化。

Smaller Denominations, and the Covid-19 Pandemic

较小的教派和共同的19个大流行

The article also touched upon the role of the Covid-19 pandemic in accelerating food price inflation. As people's disposable incomes declined, there was a greater demand for more affordable food options like kenkey and banku, leading to a decrease in demand for relatively more expensive food items such as rice and stew.

这篇文章还谈到了199-19大流行在加速食品价格通货膨胀中的作用。随着人们的一次性收入的下降，人们对更负担得起的食品选择（例如Kenkey和Banku）的需求更大，从而导致对相对昂贵的食品（例如米饭和炖菜）的需求减少。

This shift in demand had a knock-on effect, causing the prices of foodstuffs like kenkey and banku to rise rapidly.

这种需求转变产生了连锁反应，导致像肯基（Kenkey）和班克（Banku）这样的食品价格迅速上升。

Smaller Denominations: A Silent Driver of Inflation

较小的教派：通货膨胀的沉默驱动力

While inflation is usually attributed to macroeconomic factors like money supply, economic growth, and exchange rate volatility, the rejection of smaller denomination coins introduced a unique microeconomic contributor to inflationary pressures in Ghana.

虽然通货膨胀通常归因于宏观经济因素，例如货币供应，经济增长和汇率波动，但拒绝较小的面额硬币却引入了对加纳通货膨胀压力的独特微观经济贡献者。

This situation represents what economists term menu cost-induced inflation, a scenario where prices increase not necessarily due to supply-side shocks, but due to behavioral frictions in the pricing mechanism (Mankiw, 1985).

这种情况代表了经济学家术语菜单成本诱导的通货膨胀的情况，这种情况不一定是由于供应侧冲击而增加的，而是由于定价机制的行为摩擦而引起的（Mankiw，1985）。

This subtle inflation eats away at consumer purchasing power. A 20-pesewa increase in basic goods may seem insignificant in isolation, but when compounded across multiple purchases daily and monthly, it results in tangible income erosion, especially for lower-income households.

这种微妙的通货膨胀在消费者购买力方面消失了。基本商品的20-PESEWA增加似乎是微不足道的，但是当每天进行多次购买和每月进行复合时，它会导致有形的收入侵蚀，尤其是对于低收入家庭而言。

Moreover, it undermines confidence in the currency's divisibility and usability, which were some of the essential thoughts behind the currency redenomination in the first place. When citizens deem portions of their legal tender as effectively worthless, it signals a weakening public trust in the monetary system.

此外，它破坏了对货币的可分裂性和可用性的信心，这首先是货币重新计算背后的一些基本思想。当公民认为其法定货币的一部分有效毫无价值时，它表明公众对货币体系的信任削弱了。

A Gradual Drift Toward Hyperinflation?

逐渐漂移到过度通货膨胀？

Today, it is the 20 pesewa; tomorrow it could be the 50 pesewa, and soon after, the GH₵1 coin. This pattern is not speculative; it reflects Ghana's recent history. The 1, 5, 10 pesewa coins, once commonly used, have now all but disappeared from circulation and consumer memory.

今天，这是20个PESEWA；明天可能是50个PESEWA，不久之后，GH₵1硬币。这种模式不是投机性的。它反映了加纳最近的历史。 1、5、10个PESEWA硬币曾经常用，现在几乎都从循环和消费者记忆中消失了。

The Ghanaian economy is steadily losing its lower rungs of pricing elasticity, or to put it plainly, if this progression continues unchecked, Ghana risks drifting toward a situation where the lowest transactional denomination becomes GH₵5—a hallmark symptom of hyperinflation.

加纳经济正在稳步失去其定价弹性的较低量，或者明确地说，如果这种进展继续不受限制，加纳风险朝着最低的交易派别变为GH₵5的情况下，这是一种过度充气的症状。

Although this evolution may not yet meet the classic definition of hyperinflation, which entails monthly inflation exceeding 50%, the trend contributes to what can be termed creeping hyperinflation: the erosion of small-value transactions leading to disproportionate price jumps in essential goods (Hanke & Krus, 2013).

尽管这种演变可能尚不满足过度通货膨胀的经典定义，这需要每月的通货膨胀超过50％，但这种趋势有助于所谓的蔓延过度充气：小价值交易的侵蚀导致必需品的价格不成比例的价格上涨（Hanke＆Krus，2013年）。

As coins fall out of use and are replaced by higher denominations, consumers will face rising costs for even basic goods and services.

随着硬币不使用并被更高的面额所取代，消费者将面临甚至基本商品和服务的成本上升。

In a properly functioning price system, it could justifiably cost 2 pesewas, but that is no longer viable due to the impracticality of dealing with these smaller coins, which have effectively faded away.

在正常运行的价格系统中，它可能会合理地花费2个PESEWA，但由于处理这些较小的硬币的不切实际，这已不再可行，而这些硬币实际上已经消失了。

Theory Meets Reality

理论符合现实

Just before the policy rollout, this writer recalls a classroom discussion in 2007 during a Corporate Finance lecture at the University of Ghana, where we were tasked to project the long-term effects of the redenomination exercise.

在推出政策之前，这位作者回想起了2007年在加纳大学的公司金融演讲中进行的课堂讨论，在那里我们的任务是预测重新安装练习的长期影响。

A few students, drawing on behavioral economics, anticipated that if coins were culturally undervalued, they would steadily vanish from use, and the resulting price distortion could quietly fuel inflation.

借助行为经济学的一些学生预计，如果硬币在文化上被低估了，他们将稳步消失，而由此产生的价格扭曲可能会悄悄地加油通货膨胀。

Today, those predictions are playing out, a clear testament to the interplay between monetary policies, public psychology, and pricing norms.

如今，这些预测正在实现，这证明了货币政策，公共心理学和定价规范之间的相互作用。

Policy Considerations

政策考虑

While price control comes to mind and might appear as an immediate solution, such as setting fixed prices for low-cost goods like kenkey and sachet water, such interventions are historically fraught with enforcement challenges and unanticipated consequences (Tanzi

尽管价格控​​制想到并可能是直接解决方案，例如为Kenkey和Sachet Water等低成本商品设定固定价格，但这种干预措施历史上充满了执法挑战和意外后果（Tanzi）