By Issah Olegor
The producer price environment ended 2025 on a relatively calm note, with fresh data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) showing only a marginal uptick in year-on-year producer price inflation (PPI) despite notable variations across key sectors of the economy.
The December 2025 PPI stood at 1.9 per cent, reflecting a modest increase of 0.6 percentage points from the 1.3 per cent recorded in November 2025, but representing a dramatic slowdown compared to the exceptionally high levels seen a year earlier.
The latest figures underscore a significant easing of price pressures at the producer level over the past 12 months. In December 2024, producer inflation was more than 26 per cent, driven largely by currency depreciation, elevated energy costs, and supply chain disruptions.
The sharp fall to 1.9 per cent in December 2025 points to improved macroeconomic stability, tighter fiscal and monetary measures, and relative calm in global commodity markets, even as some domestic sectors continue to face cost pressures.
On a month-on-month basis, producer prices actually declined, reinforcing the narrative of subdued inflationary momentum.
The GSS reported a negative 0.8 per cent change between November and December 2025, indicating that, on average, prices received by producers for goods and services fell in December.
This suggests that short-term price movements remain favourable for consumers and downstream businesses, despite the slight year-on-year increase.
A closer look at sectoral performance reveals a mixed picture beneath the headline figure. Mining and quarrying, which carries the heaviest weight in the PPI basket at 43.7 per cent, was the main upward driver of producer inflation in December.
Inflation in the sector rose from 2.3 per cent in November to 3.3 per cent in December 2025, an increase of one percentage point.
This reflects ongoing cost pressures linked to extraction, energy use, and operational inputs in the mining industry, which continues to play a central role in the export earnings.
In contrast, the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 35 per cent of the PPI weight, recorded a further easing in price pressures. Producer inflation in manufacturing declined from 0.5 per cent in November to 0.1 per cent in December 2025, shedding 0.4 percentage points.
The decline suggests improved cost management, easing input prices, or competitive pricing strategies among manufacturers, following a period of intense pressure in previous years.
The transport and storage sub-sector also continued its deflationary trend, although at a slower pace. Producer inflation in the sector improved from a deeply negative 10.2 per cent in November to minus 3.7 per cent in December 2025.
While still in negative territory, the narrowing deflation points to a gradual normalisation of costs after sharp price corrections earlier in the year, possibly linked to fuel price adjustments and changes in logistics demand.
Against this backdrop, the GSS has urged households and consumers to remain cautious and deliberate in their spending decisions. It advised the public to adopt value-based and price-conscious consumption habits, using producer price trends as a guide to anticipate future movements in consumer prices and protect real incomes.
