Here's a comprehensive summary of the provided news article: ## Ghana's Inflation Drivers Shift: Non-Food Essentials Lead the Charge **News Title:** Electricity, Rent, Refuse and Even Akpeteshie — Now Drive Ghana’s Inflation, Not Food or Imports **Report Provider/Author:** The High Street Journal **Date/Time Period Covered:** June 2025 (with year-on-year and month-on-month comparisons) **Source:** Ghana Statistical Service ### Key Findings and Conclusions: Ghana's inflation landscape has significantly shifted, with **non-food local essentials, electricity, rent, and refuse disposal** now being the primary drivers of consumer price increases, rather than traditional culprits like food items or imported fuel. This indicates a fundamental change in the structure of inflation, moving away from import-heavy goods and food shocks towards **non-tradable goods and services**. ### Key Statistics and Metrics: * **National Inflation Rate (June 2025):** 13.7% * **Top Inflation Contributors:** * **Rent:** * Year-on-year increase: **86.0%** * Month-on-month increase: **73.2%** * Contribution to national inflation: **2.3 percentage points** (the biggest single contribution) * **Electricity:** * Year-on-year increase: **139.3%** * Month-on-month increase: **82.4%** * Contribution to inflation: Second-highest contributor * **Refuse Disposal:** * Annual surge: **130.9%** * Monthly surge: **84.3%** * Overall impact: Third in overall impact * **Other Notable Contributors:** * **Charcoal:** * Year-on-year jump: **55.6%** * Month-on-month rise: **22.6%** * **University Dorm Fees:** * Annual rise: **23.3%** * **Cinema and Cultural Services:** * Annual increase: **31.6%** * Monthly increase: **12.1%** * **Akpeteshie (Local Gin):** * Despite a price decline year-on-year (-11.4%) and month-on-month (-6.7%), it ranked among the top twenty contributors to inflation due to its market weight. ### Significant Trends or Changes: * **Shift from Food to Services:** The dominance of food items in driving inflation has softened. While food prices are still rising (e.g., Yam up 23.3% year-on-year), some staples like yam, beef, and cooked rice saw month-on-month price decreases in June. * **Rise of Non-Tradables:** Inflation is now primarily driven by services and shelter costs, which are less responsive to traditional monetary policy tools like interest rate adjustments or import tariff changes. * **Impact on Households:** The cost of living pressure for average Ghanaian households is now more acutely felt through utility bills (electricity), rent payments, and waste management services, rather than just food expenses. ### Notable Risks or Concerns: * **Difficulty in Policy Control:** The reliance on non-tradable services for inflation makes it harder for the government to control price increases using conventional economic levers. * **Broad-Based Price Pressures:** The inclusion of items like charcoal, university accommodation, and even leisure services in the inflation leaders highlights the widespread nature of price increases across various sectors of the economy. ### Material Financial Data: The article provides specific percentage increases for key inflation drivers, with **electricity (139.3% YoY, 82.4% MoM)** and **refuse disposal (130.9% YoY, 84.3% MoM)** showing particularly sharp year-on-year and month-on-month surges. Rent also saw substantial increases, contributing the most significantly to the overall inflation rate.
Electricity, Rent, Refuse and Even Akpeteshie — Now Drive Ghana’s Inflation, Not Food or Imports
Read original at News Source →FinanceIn 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,...
The High Street Journalpublished: Jul 05, 2025In 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 LeadersOther 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 SoftensFood 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 ShelterWhat’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.
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