Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rate rose to 5.0% in August 2026, up from 4.6% in July, marking the second consecutive monthly increase and pointing to renewed pressure on the country’s disinflation gains.
The latest figures from the Ghana Statistical Service show that although inflation increased by 0.4 percentage points during the month, the August rate remained 0.5 percentage points below the 5.5% recorded in August 2025.
The latest inflation trend indicates that domestic cost pressures are becoming increasingly important, with housing, transport and services recording relatively high inflation, while imported inflation remained subdued.
Non-food inflation increased marginally from 6.7% in July to 6.8% in August and accounted for 70.9% of overall inflation. Food inflation, by comparison, contributed 29.1%.
Services inflation also increased from 8.5% to 8.6%, while goods inflation rose from 3.6% to 3.8%. This means prices of services are rising at more than twice the rate of goods.
Food inflation eases
Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages declined slightly to 3.0% in August from 3.1% in July.
Despite the moderation in overall food inflation, some individual food items recorded sharp price increases during the period.
Fresh tomatoes recorded the highest year-on-year increase at 458.3%, contributing about 21.4% of total inflation. Ginger followed with a 128.3% increase, while rent payments accounted for 14.7% of inflation.
Other significant increases were recorded for parking space and other services, which rose by 40.0%, fresh coconut by 38.0%, charcoal by 35.6% and fresh green pepper by 30.5%.
Housing, transport drive price pressures
The division-level data showed continued pressure in several essential areas of household expenditure.
Housing, water and energy recorded inflation of about 10.2%, while transport inflation stood at 10.5%.
Education services recorded inflation of 6.6%, while clothing and footwear recorded about 8.0%.
The figures indicate that essential services and household-related costs remain significant sources of inflationary pressure despite the relatively low headline rate.
Domestic pressures dominate
The latest data also point to a growing divergence between locally produced and imported inflation.
Inflation for locally produced items increased from 5.9% in July to 6.1% in August, while imported inflation remained significantly lower at 2.2%.
Locally produced items and services accounted for 86.2% of total inflation, highlighting the dominant role of domestic factors in the current price environment.
Regional variations
There were also significant differences in inflation across the regions.
The Central Region recorded the highest inflation rate at 11.1%, more than twice the national average, followed by the Ashanti Region at 8.7%.
Greater Accra recorded inflation of 5.0%, matching the national rate, while Bono East posted the lowest inflation rate at 3.3%.
Despite the increase in year-on-year inflation, the month-on-month data provided some relief, showing a 1.0% decline in the general price level in August compared with July.
The combination of rising annual inflation and the monthly decline suggests that while Ghana continues to record relatively moderate price increases overall, maintaining the disinflation trend could increasingly depend on addressing domestic cost pressures, particularly in essential goods and services.
