Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rate rose to 5.3 per cent in June 2026, up from 3.7 per cent in May, marking the third consecutive monthly increase since March, according to the Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu.
Presenting the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Wednesday, Dr. Iddrisu, however, stressed that despite the recent increase, the country’s inflation environment remained significantly more stable than a year ago when inflation stood at 13.7 per cent.
“Although year-on-year inflation increased compared with last month, price pressures remained substantially lower than they were one year ago,” he said.
He explained that while inflation had increased by 1.6 percentage points from May, it had declined by 8.4 percentage points compared with June 2025, describing the overall trend as “progress, but not complacency.”
“The message from the data is one of progress, but not complacency. Ghana has reduced inflation significantly over the past year. However, the recent upward trend since March indicates that inflationary pressures are beginning to strengthen again,” Dr. Iddrisu noted.
The Government Statistician said the Consumer Price Index increased from 257.3 in June 2025 to 270.9 in June 2026, reflecting the 5.3 per cent increase in consumer prices over the 12-month period.
He also pointed to relatively subdued monthly price increases, noting that month-on-month inflation slowed to 0.2 per cent in June, down from 1.1 per cent recorded between April and May.
“While annual inflation increased, the increase in prices during June itself was relatively modest. Year-on-year inflation looks back over 12 months, whereas month-on-month inflation tells us what happened over the last four weeks,” he explained.
Non-food items drive inflation
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the latest rise in inflation was driven largely by non-food products and services.
Food inflation edged up from 3.3 per cent to 3.9 per cent, contributing 31.5 per cent of headline inflation, while non-food inflation rose more sharply from 4.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent, accounting for 68.5 per cent of overall inflation.
Services continued to record stronger price increases than goods, with services inflation standing at 9.5 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent for goods.
Dr. Iddrisu further revealed that inflation for locally produced goods rose from 5.0 per cent to 6.7 per cent, while imported inflation increased from 0.9 per cent to 2.3 per cent.
More significantly, locally produced items contributed 86.6 per cent of headline inflation compared with 13.4 per cent for imported products.
“This finding is significant. It tells us that inflation in Ghana is currently being driven primarily by domestic factors rather than imported price pressures,” he said.
He added that the findings underscored the need for continued investment in agriculture, transportation, storage facilities and domestic supply chains.
Regional disparities
Regionally, the North East Region recorded the highest inflation rate at 10.2 per cent, while Bono East Region posted the lowest at negative 4.4 per cent, indicating that average prices there were lower than a year ago.
The Western Region also recorded deflation of negative 0.5 per cent.
Although the North East Region registered the highest inflation, Dr. Iddrisu said the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions together accounted for about 63 per cent of national headline inflation because of their larger populations and greater share of household expenditure.
Transport emerges major inflation driver
Among expenditure divisions, food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to inflation because of their significant share in household spending.
However, transport emerged as the second-largest driver after transport inflation surged sharply.
The Government Statistician disclosed that bus and trotro fares alone accounted for 10.5 per cent of headline inflation, making them the single biggest contributor to overall inflation despite increasing by only 10.2 per cent.
Other major contributors included rent payments, secondary school fees, ginger and river fish.
Dr. Iddrisu explained that although ginger recorded the highest annual price increase of 102.5 per cent, it contributed less to overall inflation than transport because relatively fewer households spend a significant portion of their income on ginger.
“Almost every Ghanaian household spends money on transportation. Far fewer households spend a large share of their income on ginger. Therefore, even a modest increase in transportation fares affects millions of households and has a much larger impact on national inflation than a very large increase in the price of a relatively less purchased item,” he said.
Food prices remain relatively stable
The Government Statistician said overall food inflation remained relatively low despite significant variations among individual food items.
While prices of ginger, shrimps, mangoes and bananas rose sharply, staple foods such as maize, beans, millet and garden eggs recorded substantial price declines.
He said this demonstrated the resilience of domestic food markets and highlighted the importance of sustained investments in agriculture, storage infrastructure and market logistics.
