Inflation May Ease as Harvest Season Approaches – Government Statistician
The Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, expects inflation to come down later in the year, due to the expected harvest season.
According to him, since food constitutes a significant portion of the basket computing the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the expected harvest season could impact inflation going forward.
Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu disclosed this on PM EXPRESS Business Edition on June 16 2026 with host George Wiafe.
“We are heading towards the main harvest season and historically that brings prices down. And that should give us some comfort,” he explained.
He stated that “we don’t expect things to stay at these high levels forever; at a point in time, things will slowdown”.
The assurance from the Government Statistician is coming at a time that food inflation has been rising.
The development has heightened concerns inflation could be going up in the coming months and will go beyond the single-digit band by December.
Food inflation rose to 3.3 % in May 2026 from 2.2 % in April 2026 (Year -on-Year Inflation), while from April to May 2026 it increased to 2.0 %, the fastest that the country has recorded in a single month.
The drivers of this spike were rising tomato prices, cooking fuel like charcoal and ginger, as well as some supply issues that hit other foodstuffs in the country.
But speaking on PM Express the Government Statistician said despite this spike, some other food prices have dropped.
“What we have seen is not all about explosive prices, but the situation has been mixed,” the Government Statistician added.
He noted that inflation is coming down and “we don’t see things getting out of hand going forward”.
Outlook
Another development the Government Statistician captured was the recovery of the Ghana cedi in recent days. “This could affect imported inputs used by farmers and imported food items”.
Dr. Alhassan noted that going forward the government should maintain fiscal discipline, invest in food systems especially storage, irrigation, and transport, and address regional inequalities in market access.
“We believe that, if these measures are implemented that could deal with any unforeseen circumstances in the coming months, that affect the inflation numbers”, he stated
Agric Sector and the Economy
The first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates showed that the sector slowed from 6.6% in the first quarter of 2025 to 4.4 %.
The Fishing sub-sector contracted by -18.5% year-on-year and -3.8% quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted.
The development has again raised concerns about the fortunes of the sector and its implication on food security going forward.
But the Government Statistician disagrees, sayings things are rather picking up.
“We should note that apart from fishing that went down in terms of contracting, all the other sub-sectors recorded some moderate growth”, Dr. Alhassan added.
The Government statistician also said the seasonal effect of agriculture sector performance and increasing production could impact the sector’s fortunes going forward.
H, however, urged the government to take some drastic measures to deal with fishing sub-sector, to help turn around its dwindling fortunes.
“We believe that the sector could be doing, much better, than its current performance”, he stressed.
He called for more investments in the agric sector to help address the challenge and put in place programmes aimed at correcting the inherent challenges facing the sector.
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