Ghana’s annual inflation rate reaccelerated to 5.0% in August 2026, up from 4.6% in July, as non-food price growth picked up to 6.8% from 6.1%, driven in part by higher oil prices stemming from the Middle East conflict that pushed up transport and utility costs, the Ghana Statistical Service reported.
Food inflation eased marginally to 3.0% from 3.1%, while on a monthly basis the consumer price index fell 1.0% in August, marking the first monthly decline since late 2025.
The August uptick reverses the disinflationary trend of the previous month, when inflation fell to 4.6% from a six-month high of 5.3% in June. Ghana’s inflation has come down sharply from the 22.8% recorded in June 2024, but the August rebound underscores how fragile the disinflation process remains.
The broader economy continued to expand. Ghana’s real GDP grew 6.0% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, according to data published on the Ghana Statistical Service website, matching the pace of the same quarter a year earlier and accelerating from 5.3% in Q2 2025. Both the production and expenditure approaches to measuring GDP showed 6.0% growth in Q2 2026.
The prime building cost index rose 4.0% year-on-year in July 2026, up 0.9 percentage points from June, while the manufacturing input-export gap index registered 6.5%. The producer price index increased 4.4% year-on-year in August, up from 4.0% in July.
Nigeria’s inflation picture remains far more strained. The National Bureau of Statistics reported an all-items inflation rate of 15.39% in August 2026, with a base period of 2024 = 100, figures published on the NBS website. Nigeria’s real GDP grew 3.89% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, up from 3.13% in Q1 2025. The non-oil sector contributed 96.08% of total GDP, while the mining and quarrying sector grew 1.89% and manufacturing expanded 3.29%.
The divergent inflation paths between the two West African economies underscore the uneven post-pandemic recovery across the continent. Ghana’s 6.0% GDP growth in Q2 2026 and Nigeria’s 3.89% in Q1 both track above the World Bank’s regional projection of 4.3% growth for sub-Saharan Africa in 2026-27, which the bank said would represent an acceleration from 3.5% in 2025 and 3.3% in 2024.
The Ghana Statistical Service released the July 2026 Consumer Price Index bulletin on 6th August 2026, with supporting annexes, presentation materials and infographics made available through its price indices releases portal. The August figures, published on the agency’s website, represent the first upward revision to Ghana’s inflation trajectory since the start of the year.
