In Ghana’s latest inflation breakdown, the top drivers aren’t the usual culprits like tomatoes, gari, or kenkey. Instead, it’s non-food, local essentials, electricity, rent, and refuse disposal that are exerting the greatest pressure on consumer prices.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, electricity prices skyrocketed by 139.3% year-on-year and 82.4% month-on-month, making it the second-highest contributor to inflation in June 2025. Payment for rent saw an 86.0% year-on-year increase and a 73.2% monthly rise, giving it the biggest single contribution of 2.3 percentage points to the national inflation rate of 13.7%.
Even refuse disposal services, often a minor item in household budgets, surged by 130.9% annually and 84.3% in just one month, placing third in overall impact. This trio of essentials, rent, electricity, and waste management, is now doing more to shape inflation than food or imported fuel.
Charcoal, Dorm Fees, and Even Akpeteshie Join the Inflation Leaders
Other notable contributors climbed the inflation rankings in June, including some surprising names. Charcoal prices jumped 55.6% year-on-year and 22.6% month-on-month, underscoring the pressure on alternative cooking fuels as utility prices soar. University-related costs, particularly hostel and dormitory accommodation, also saw a 23.3% annual rise, while cinema and cultural services increased by 31.6% annually and 12.1% in the month, suggesting that even leisure is not immune to price pressures.
And then there’s Akpeteshie, the local gin long considered cheap and inflation-proof. Despite a decline in price by 11.4% year-on-year and 6.7% month-on-month, it still found its way into the top twenty contributors to inflation. That appearance underscores just how tight the inflation mix has become, where even deflating items can rank high simply due to weight and market size.
Food’s Familiar Weight Softens
Food remains a significant force in Ghana’s inflation makeup, but its weight is beginning to soften. Yam prices rose by 23.3% year-on-year but dropped 9.4% month-on-month, suggesting a seasonal supply effect. Beef followed a similar path, 15.9% up over the year, but down 6.2% in June. Even cooked rice, a staple urban meal, registered only a 10.1% rise over 12 months, and fell 3.9% month-on-month.
The New Face of Inflation: Services and Shelter
What’s emerging is a shift in the structure of inflation itself. Rather than being driven by import-heavy goods or food shocks, Ghana’s inflation story is now dominated by non-tradables, rent, utilities, and local services. These components are harder to tame with conventional policy levers like interest rate adjustments or import tariff tweaks.
For the average Ghanaian household, the inflation heat is no longer just in the food market, it’s coming from the electric meter, the landlord, and even the trash collector.
