Provisional figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service shows that Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product, which is the total value of everything produced in the country grew by 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2019.
This is the slowest growth rate for Ghana’s economy since the second quarter of 2018. The economy grew at 5.4 percent during that quarter.
The slow growth rate of 5.6 percent marks a consistent drop in Ghana’s GDP growth rate for 4 consecutive quarters.
Government Statistician, Samuel Kobina Annim, attributed the slowdown in growth rate primarily to the drop in value addition for the country’s gold.
“From our perspective, one of the things we want to put emphasis on is that consistently there has been a continuous drop in both the production and value addition of gold. Indeed, for the 3rd quarter of 2019, we recorded a drop of 19 %, and for the second quarter of 2019, we recorded a drop of 11 %, which further dropped from the first quarter.”
He also attributed the slow growth rate to the declining performance of manganese.
“In the case of manganese, from a quarter on quarter basis, there was a jump between the first and second quarter of 2019, to over 1000 % increase. But this 1000 % increase that was recorded for manganese for the second quarter of 2019 dropped to about 2 percentage points in the third quarter of 2019.”
Growth drivers
The main sub-sectors driving the growth in the July to September 2019 GDP were Information & Communication, Real Estate, Education, Mining and Quarrying and Crops. The Information & Communication sub-sector increased from 9.9 % in quarter three of 2018 to 26.6% in quarter three of 2019. The Real Estate sub-sector on the other hand recovered from a contraction of 16.7% in quarter three of 2018 to 22.1% in quarter three of 2019. The Electricity sub-sector recorded a growth of 10.8% in the 3rd quarter 2019 compared to the 5.6% in same period 2018
3rd Quarter GDP growth slower than expected
The average growth rate estimate of three economists sampled by Citi Business news was 7%.
Further Breakdown
The 2019 third quarter GDP at current prices was estimated at GH₵85.26 Billion according to the data from the Ghana Statistical Service. The corresponding value recorded for the third quarter in 2018 was GH₵74.2 Billion. In constant terms or at base year prices however, 2019 third quarter GDP was estimated at GH₵41.5 Billion.
In terms of sectoral distribution for the 2019 third quarter GDP including oil, the Services sector contributed the most at 45.8% or GHC 36.57 Billion, while Industry and Agriculture contributed 35.7% or GHC 28.49 Billion and 18.5% or GHC14.77 Billion respectively.