On Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) figures, the official consumer basket that cost GH¢100 in October 2022 cost about GH¢188 in October 2026. That is a rise of 87.8% in four years, averaged across the CPI basket, not any one household's shopping. A post on X on Saturday 14 November attributed to a government official the claim that such items now cost GH¢105.
The post, by @yabbanx at 12:04 GMT, reads: "Items that cost GHS 100 4 years ago now cost GHS 105 for Ghanaians because of the 5.5% inflation rate — Government official". It asks: "Fellow Ghanaians, is this true??" It had been seen more than 8,200 times by 18:05 GMT.
The 30-second clip attached is from JoyNews's Newsfile. The speaker is not named on screen, and StatsGH has not identified him. He does not say "four years".
He says: "So if you had 100 Ghana cedis few years ago, at 54% rate of inflation, I would have had to put 154. Today at one hun- at 5%, it's just about 105 in that, in that sense." The "four years" is in the caption, not the clip.
What the official index shows
Inflation measures how much prices have risen over the past 12 months. GSS put it at 5.5% in October 2026. Its own October presentation explains: "A basket that cost GH₵100.00 in October 2025 costs GH₵105.50 today."
So GH¢105 is about right for one year. It is not right for four.
The rates of the past four years pile on top of each other. On the GSS series, year-on-year inflation each October was 40.4% in 2022, 34.9% in 2023, 22.1% in 2024, 8.0% in 2025 and 5.5% in 2026.
| From | To October 2026 | GH¢100 of the official basket then costs |
|---|---|---|
| October 2022 | 4 years | GH¢187.78 |
| October 2023 | 3 years | GH¢139.20 |
| October 2024 | 2 years | GH¢114.01 |
| October 2025 | 1 year | GH¢105.52 |
4 years
3 years
2 years
1 year
Source: Ghana Statistical Service, October 2026 CPI annexes, Annex 1 (Average 2021 = 100). These are official-basket averages, not any one household's shopping bill.
Food rose faster than the rest. A food basket costing GH¢100 in October 2022 cost GH¢199.44 in October 2026. Non-food items rose to GH¢178.50.
The speaker's own comparison holds as a statement about annual rates. Inflation peaked at 54.1% in December 2022, the highest reading on the current GSS series (Average 2021 = 100). A basket costing GH¢100 in December 2021 cost GH¢154.14 a year later, as he said.
But slower inflation does not mean lower prices. That December 2021 basket cost GH¢256.75 in October 2026. Another voice on the panel made a similar point, asking whether people today were "finding the 100 Ghana cedis".
Put another way, GH¢100 kept as cash since October 2022 now buys what GH¢53.25 bought then.
Our earlier stories compare inflation at Forson's 22-month mark with Ofori-Atta's and set the 5.5% rate against the 14% policy rate.
Monthly official index. Highlighted bars: October 2022 (144.4), December 2022 (162.8, the peak year-on-year rate on this series), October 2025 (257.0) and October 2026 (271.1).
Source: Ghana Statistical Service, October 2026 CPI annexes, Annex 1. Index levels shown to one decimal place, as in the GSS presentation.
What it means
A falling inflation rate means prices are rising more slowly. They are still rising.
For prices to return to 2022 levels, inflation would have to be negative for a long time. Incomes that have not risen by about 88% since October 2022 buy less than they did.
Limitations
The CPI is an average across 307 items and 8,337 outlets, as the October 2026 GSS presentation states. Any household's own costs may differ. All index figures are from the current GSS series (Average 2021 = 100).
GSS was already using this new series in October 2022: the index of 144.4 and the October 2021 linked figure of 102.9 match what the Government Statistician gave when that month was first published, as reported by the Ghana News Agency. No rebasing falls inside the October 2022 to October 2026 period.
Annual rates here are from GSS's current annex and may differ slightly from figures first published, other than October 2022 (40.4% both times). Spoken quotations from the clip follow a machine-assisted transcript saved with the filing; the verification desk confirmed the on-screen Newsfile and JoyNews graphics, including a chyron on social protection that does not name the speaker, but did not independently re-transcribe the audio.
The speaker and the date of the broadcast were not shown. StatsGH did not contact the speaker, the poster or JoyNews.
Sources: Ghana Statistical Service, October 2026 CPI COICOP Annexes, Annex 1 "Headline CPI & Inflation Rates (Average 2021 = 100)" (4 Nov 2026). Ghana Statistical Service, October 2026 CPI and Inflation presentation (4 Nov 2026); GSS listing. Ghana News Agency, "Inflation rate rises to 40.4 per cent in October" (9 Nov 2022). Graphic Online, "Inflation hits 40.4% in October" (9 Nov 2022). StatsGH, Forson vs Ofori-Atta 22-month inflation story. StatsGH, policy rate vs inflation story (13 Nov 2026). X post: @yabbanx, 14 Nov 2026 12:04 GMT, with JoyNews Newsfile clip.