Tariffs are rising. Production costs are going up. But wages? They’ve barely moved.
That’s the reality Ghanaian businesses and households are grappling with, according to economist Professor Patrick Asuming, who shared sobering insights in an interview.
Prof. Asuming warned that while headline figures such as inflation and macroeconomic indicators may suggest progress, the lived experience of most Ghanaians tells a different story.
“We still have to understand that prices are climbing,” he said. “Yes, the rate of increase has slowed — from around 18% to about 10% — but prices haven’t declined. Things are still getting more expensive.”
He made it clear that the drop in the Producer Price Index (PPI) does not mean a reversal in prices, only a slowing in the pace of increases.
“We shouldn’t expect that the decline in inflation means that prices are coming down anytime soon,” he stressed.
One major contributor to this pressure, he explained, is the continued rise in utility and input costs. “These tariffs keep going up, and it’s a big element of the cost,” he said.
“Wages are not coming down either, and the domestic cost of production is rising.” The message is clear: businesses are squeezed from all sides, and that strain is being passed on to consumers.
While the Ghana cedi has strengthened and some financial indicators are looking up, the benefits are not being felt broadly across the economy.
“It seems to me that the financial and monetary side of the economy has performed better, and the real side seems to be lagging behind,” he observed.
Prof. Asuming acknowledged some gains.
“Government has been very quick to try and put its finances in order,” he said, pointing to improvements in Treasury bill rates, foreign reserves, and some tailwinds from global commodity prices.
“We’ve done well on the financial side,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean the broader economy is healthy.”
When asked about the first quarter GDP figures, he admitted they beat expectations but urged caution.
“The economy is divided into 20 sub-sectors. Five saw a decline,” he noted.
“The weightier sectors grew, and that helped pull up the overall numbers. But it’s not uniform, and we need to be careful how we interpret the growth.”
For the ordinary Ghanaian, the disconnect between good macro numbers and tough day-to-day conditions is growing.
“That tends to give you some disconnect between how people are perceiving the real economy and the macro numbers they see,” he said. “How might they be feeling in terms of their pockets?”
Prof. Asuming’s message was consistent and clear: until tariffs stop rising, until costs stabilise, and until wages begin to move, most Ghanaians won’t feel the impact of the recovery — no matter what the data says.