Economy Worth GH�73.1 Billion In 2012

The value of goods and services produced in the country, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), currently stands at GH�73.1 billion, data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has showed. The per capita � the average income of each citizen � also rose from GH�1.87 million in 2011 to GH�2.8 million in 2012, according to the data. The data, which was released yesterday, also showed that the economy grew at 7.9 per cent in 2012. The current data is a revised version of an earlier one released in September last year. The provisional data at the time showed that the economy grew at 7.1 per cent in 2012, while annual GDP was estimated at GH�71.8 billion. �In nominal terms, the revised GDP estimate for 2012 is GH�73.1billion, compared to the provisional estimates of GH�71.8 billion for the same period released in September 2012,� the acting government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, said at a news conference in Accra. She said the revision to the provisional data was �based on 2012 full year data on most of the activities� in the economy. She explained that the services sector recorded the highest growth of 10.2 per cent, followed by industry which grew by 7.0 per cent. The agriculture sector recorded the least growth rate of 1.3 per cent in the year. The services sector maintained its dominance as the largest contributor to the country�s GDP, accounting for about 50 per cent of the total goods and services produced in 2012. Industry became the second with 27.3 per cent followed by agriculture which contributed 22.7 per cent to the year�s GDP. Dr Nyarko said GDP for the fourth quarter of 2012 also grew by six per cent with the services sector again recording the highest growth rate of 13.7 per cent, followed by the agricultural sector with 0.6 per cent. Growth in industry, however, declined by 3.6 per cent, Dr Nyarko said. Meanwhile,inflation for March went up by 0.4 percentage points to the current level of 10.4 per cent. The March 2013 rate is the highest of its kind since June 2010. Inflation, which measures the average change in prices of goods and services in the country over a time, was 10 per cent in February. Comparing monthly inflation in February 2013 to March 2013, there was a decline of 2.6 per cent in February to 1.7 per cent last month. According to Dr Nyarko, the rise in inflation in March was as a result of positive pressure on the food and non food basket. She also mentioned the January hikes in fuel prices as another cause but said it would take a while before such impact finally subsided. She said the year-on-year non-food inflation rate was 13.2 per cent compared to 12.6 per cent recorded in February 2013. On the regional level,the Greater Accra Region recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 12.2 per cent,followed by Ashanti Region with 11.2 per cent, while the Western Region recorded the least rate of 8.2 per cent. Story: Jessica Acheampong