The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has cautioned that rising inflation in locally manufactured goods indicates that businesses are yet to fully recover, despite Ghana’s return to single-digit inflation.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, GNCCI Chief Executive Officer Mark Badu-Aboagye said business conditions had improved, but persistent cost pressures continued to weigh on manufacturers.
“If you look at the numbers, the cost of locally manufactured goods, the inflation for it went up a bit, which should tell you that we are still not out of the woods yet,” he said.
His comments came amid a broadly positive assessment of the business environment, which he described as relatively better than in previous years.
Mr Badu-Aboagye said the 2026 budget had been largely business-friendly, with tax relief measures benefiting businesses and consumers, while declining interest rates had helped ease production costs.
“Relatively, business has been good. Things are a bit better as compared to previous years,” he said.
He also attributed the decline in inflation to businesses moderating price increases, noting that the private sector had contributed to the country’s single-digit inflation.
“So if you see inflation at a single digit, among other factors, the fact that businesses have not been increasing their prices excessively,” he explained.
However, the host questioned whether the national inflation figure adequately reflected the varying spending patterns and economic conditions experienced by consumers across the country.
In response, Mr Badu-Aboagye pointed to the national average inflation rate of 5.5 per cent, while acknowledging that some regions continued to record higher rates.
“There are outliers. Some may have a higher inflation, even in the regional context,” he said.
He identified exchange rate stability as a major factor behind the easing of inflation, alongside improvements in production costs.
Despite these gains, the GNCCI CEO argued that further tariff relief, in addition to the tax measures introduced by government, could have reduced the cost of locally manufactured goods more significantly.
“Inflation would have been a bit lower,” he said.
