Prices of petroleum products are expected to decline marginally at the pumps from January 1, 2026.

The projection is contained in the latest outlook report by the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC), which guides pricing decisions by oil marketing companies and has been sighted by JoyBusiness.

Projected Reduction

The price of petrol is expected to fall by between 2.40% and 4.80%, bringing the pump price per litre to about GH¢11.90.

Diesel is projected to decline by as much as 3.77%, which could see a litre selling at around GH¢12.50.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is also expected to drop by up to 2.19%, resulting in a kilogram selling at approximately GH¢13.40.

Reasons

According to the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies, the expected reduction has been influenced mainly by declining prices of crude oil and finished petroleum products on the international market.

Market data show that international refined product prices fell significantly during the period, with petrol down 9.17%, diesel down 8.11%, and LPG down 3.82%.

The cedi has also strengthened against the US dollar, appreciating by more than 3% over the past three weeks.

For the January 1, 2026, pricing window, the local currency rose from GH¢11.14 to GH¢10.50 to the dollar, representing an 8.20% gain.

This marks one of its strongest performances in recent months, and a sharp improvement from the GH¢14.84 recorded during the same period last year.

More than 200 Oil Marketing Companies have told JoyBusiness they will begin reducing prices from this weekend after completing the necessary adjustments at the pumps.

Others say the changes could take effect as early as Monday.

Some marketers have also indicated that further reductions could follow if the cedi continues to appreciate or remains stable against the dollar.

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According to Forbes’ billionaires index, Elon Musk’s net worth increased to $749 billion late Friday following the Delaware Supreme Court’s reinstatement of $139 billion worth of Tesla stock options that were nullified last year.

The Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Musk’s $56 billion 2018 bonus plan on Friday, two years after a lower court declared the agreement “unfathomable.”

According to the Supreme Court, a 2024 decision that revoked the compensation package was unjust and unfair to Musk.

Following rumors that his aerospace business SpaceX was about to go public, Musk became the first person in history to have a net worth of more than $600 billion earlier this week.

A $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk was approved separately by Tesla shareholders in November, becoming the highest corporate compensation package in history. Investors supported Musk’s aim to transform the EV manufacturer into a robotics and artificial intelligence powerhouse.

According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, Musk’s wealth now surpasses that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the second richest person in the world, by about $500 billion.

On Friday, a stark chart posted by the X account @worldranking_ went viral, showing that total global debt has smashed through the $338 trillion ceiling. The underlying data comes from the respected Institute of International Finance (IIF), which pegged the exact figure at $337.7 trillion as of mid-2025, with the total climbing toward $346 trillion by the end of September. To put that in perspective: world GDP is roughly $110–115 trillion. We now owe more than three times what the entire planet produces in a year.

That number includes everything: government bonds, corporate loans, mortgages, credit-card balances, financial-sector borrowing, student loans, car notes — every dollar, euro, yen, or yuan that someone, somewhere, has promised to pay back with interest.

A lot of this debt is “internal plumbing.” When Germany buys U.S. Treasuries, or a Japanese insurance company holds French corporate bonds, one entity’s liability is another’s asset. The global balance sheet still balances; it’s just that the left side (what we owe) and the right side (what we own) have both ballooned in tandem. Yet the sheer scale is dizzying, and the trend is unmistakably upward.

Online reactions ranged from gallows humor (“We owe it to the Martians now”) to personal confessions (“My $38k in student loans feels seen”) to sober takes pointing out that the United States, with its roughly $36 trillion in total public debt, accounts for “only” about 10–11% of the world total — large in absolute terms, but no longer the lone gorilla in the debt cage. China, Japan, the Eurozone, and the global corporate and household sectors all carry massive loads of their own.

The unease is palpable. Interest rates spent years near zero, making borrowing feel almost free. Governments funded pandemic relief, companies refinanced at rock-bottom yields, and households took on bigger mortgages and auto loans. Now, with central banks having raised rates to fight inflation, the servicing cost of that mountain of debt is rising fast. The IIF estimates that global debt-service ratios are already climbing, particularly in emerging markets.

Is this the prelude to a crisis? Not necessarily tomorrow. Modern financial systems are designed to roll over maturing debt rather than repay it outright, and many advanced economies can still borrow in their own currencies. But every record brings us closer to the point where markets start asking uncomfortable questions: Who ultimately backs all this debt if growth slows, demographics worsen, or another shock hits?

For now, the world keeps charging. $338 trillion and counting.