Baku:Producer prices in Ghana increased to 4.8% in September 2026, up from 4.4% in August. This was revealed in the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Statistical Service.
According to Ghana News Agency, the increase in producer inflation was primarily driven by higher prices in the mining and manufacturing sectors. The annual rate was higher than the 3.2% recorded a year ago, although the monthly inflation pace slowed to 1.3% in September compared to 2.5% in August 2026.
The industrial sector, excluding construction, saw the highest annual inflation rate among major sectors at 7.2%, rising from 6.3% in August. Construction recorded a slight increase to 4.7% from 4.5%, while services slowed to 1.4% from 1.8%.
Mining and quarrying contributed significantly to the inflation, with a 5.5% inflation rate, accounting for about half of the overall producer inflation in September. A notable driver was the extraction of crude oil and natural gas, where producer prices surged by 18.3%. Mining support service activities increased by 5.3%, although other mining activities and metal ore mining saw declines.
Manufacturing inflation was 4.6% in September, up from 3.6% in August and 1.7% a year earlier. This sector, along with mining, accounted for over 80% of the overall producer inflation rate. Within manufacturing, the most significant price hikes were seen in leather, fabricated metals, furniture, machinery, equipment, and basic metals.
Electricity and gas prices eased to 9.8% in September from 12.3% in August, while water supply and waste management slowed to 8.3% from 10.1%. In the construction sector, inflation rose due to building activities at 7%, with specialised works at 4.8% and civil engineering at 3.7%.
The services sector remained low at 1.4%, yet land transport, motion picture and television production, air transport, and warehousing services saw price increases. Transport and storage prices rose by 5.8% in September, reversing a decline of 8.2% from the previous year, indicating renewed cost pressures in transport-related activities.
During a virtual presentation, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician, emphasized that producer prices are an important indicator of economic cost pressures. He noted that the index measures price changes at the factory gate before goods reach consumers, and suggested that businesses and policymakers use these data for planning and monitoring economic trends.
The Ghana Statistical Service collected the September figures from 603 businesses across 2,639 products nationwide, highlighting its commitment to providing reliable statistics for economic planning and decision-making.