October brought some welcome news for Ghanaian households; headline inflation eased from 9.4% in September to 8.0%, while month-on-month, prices fell 0.41%. For many, it felt like a small sigh of relief at the market, a sign that everyday items were starting to stabilize. But not everything followed this easing trend.
Some of the staples Ghanaians rely on daily, Green Plantains, Tomato Paste, Cassava – Kokonte Dough, Bread, and even Re-Sold Tap Water, kept climbing in price.
Plantains led the pack, jumping from 14.2% to 61.6%, a staggering increase reflecting seasonal shortages and heightened demand. Tomato Paste, which had been cheaper just a month ago, shot from -6.2% to 29.4%, showing how supply chain hiccups can quickly ripple onto kitchen shelves. Cassava and Kokonte Dough, a household staple for fufu and other meals, also rose sharply from 1.6% to 28.5%, while bread crept up slightly, and tap water in buckets or barrels edged higher.
These sharp increases stand out against the broader inflation trends in October 2025. While headline inflation fell, and many other goods and services showed an easing rate of increase, these five essentials demonstrate that not all prices moved in the same direction. This means that even in a month of general relief, the cost of key staples can still strain budgets, highlighting the uneven impact of inflation across different items.
For the broader categories, food and non-alcoholic beverages, which account for 42.7% of the typical consumer basket, fell by 1.5 percentage points, while non-food items dropped by 1.3 points.
Goods, which make up most of the basket, saw a 1.9-point decline. Services, though more stable, recorded a slight month-on-month increase of 0.54%, showing that some everyday services, from transport to haircuts, remained costly despite the easing.
For October’s inflation, while most goods and services brought welcome relief, five staples that sustain households remained stubbornly expensive, with their prices continuing to rise at an even faster pace.
