First quarter provisional figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) reveals that Ghana’s economy grew by 4.9% year-on-year in 2016 compared with a revised 4.5% in the corresponding period last year.
Ghana’s GDP growth has slowed in the last two years due to lower commodity prices and a fiscal crisis that has forced the country to sign a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Government has projected that growth will recover to 5.4 percent at the end of the year from 3.9 percent last year, based on the anticipated stream of revenue from additional petroleum resources.
Government statistician, Dr. Philomena Nyarko, said at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday.
According to her, the mining and fishing sub-sectors of the economy contracted in the first three months while power, communication and water recorded double digit growth year-on-year.
“We had significant shifts in the growth of the power sector as well as some components of the services group,” Dr. Nyarko said.
She explained that Growth Domestic Poriduct (GDP) is measured as the total value of all finished goods and services produced within a specific time period.
Dr. Nyarko further explained that the provisional quarter –on-quarter GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2016 is 1.1 percent which represents an estimated 8.095 million cedis in constant terms, compared with 7.718 million cedis in the first quarter of 2015.
According to her, oil GDP at current prices for the first quarter of 2016 inclusive of the oil sector amounted to GH¢37,515.8 million compared to GH¢32,534.9 million in the first quarter of 2015, while GDP estimate at current prices without the oil sector for the first quarter of 2016 was GH¢36,892.2 million compared to GH¢31,331.9 million in the first quarter of 2015.
She added GDP at constant 2006 prices for oil GDP for the first quarter of 2016 was GH¢8,095.0 million compared to GH¢7,718.0 million in the first quarter of 2015.
The Non-Oil GDP, she said was estimated at constant 2006 prices for the first quarter of 2016 was GH¢7,683.8 million compared to GH¢7,206.7 million in the first quarter of 2015.
“Meanwhile, GDP shares for the various sectors show that in the same period – first quarter of 2015, agriculture was 12.8%; industry was 29.9% and services was 57.3%,” she stressed.
Dr. Nyarko indicated that the seasonally adjusted GDP showed that for the first quarter of 2016, the agriculture sector grew by 0.4 percent in the first quarter compared with the first quarter of 2015 which recorded 2.8%.
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