Ghana’s economy records 6.7 percent growth in 2019 first quarter

Provisional figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) shows that Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) grew by 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2019.

This is compared to the same period in 2018 which was at 5.4 percent.

Speaking at a press conference, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim pointed out that the non-oil GDP growth for the first quarter of 2019 was at 6.0 percent year-on-year compared to 4.2 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2018.

Services sector

Breaking the figures down into sectors, he explained that the Services sector recorded a year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 7.2 percent.

“The Information & Communication sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 37.0 percent while the Finance & Insurance sub-sector recorded the lowest growth of 2.1 percent”.

Industry sector

The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for the Industry sector was at 8.4 percent for the first quarter 2019.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 20.9 percent for same period in 2019, while the construction sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction at -8.7 percent.

Agriculture sector

The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for Agriculture was at 2.2  percent for the first quarter of 2019.

Also, the livestock sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate of 5.5 percent while the Forestry and logging sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction of -5.8 percent.