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The seasonally adjusted real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2011 closed at 34 per cent up compared to 31.5 per cent recorded in the same quarter in 2010. This indicates a remarkable increase in business activity in the country, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) announced yesterday in Accra. The mining and quarrying sector, which also consisted of oil production, were the highest contributors to the increase in the country�s economic activity for the period recording 302.8 per cent with oil production accounting for 67 per cent out of the figure (302.8 per cent). Other sectors such as manufacturing followed with 104.8 per cent and financial and insurance activities increased to 76 per cent. The unadjusted real GDP for the second quarter of 2011 also increased to 33.5 per cent. Dr Grace Bediako, Government Statistician, who announced the figures at a press conference, said the industry sector was the main contributor to the economy recording 84.2 per cent followed by agriculture, which recorded 30.3 per cent while the services sector declined to 14 per cent. On quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted, the financial and insurance activities sub-sector of the services sector recorded the highest growth of 47.1 per cent within the industry. Crops and cocoa production increased to 58.2 per cent from 27.5 per cent recorded in the first quarter to lead the agricultural sector with forestry and logging, and fishing behind. From the industry sector, mining and quarrying was 18.7 per cent, ahead of manufacturing and utilities. Key findings of the second quarter performance of the economy showed that crops and cocoa increased by 78.2 per cent; trade, repair of vehicles, and household goods declined to 31.6 per cent, hotel and restaurant declined to 20.9 per cent, and business and other service activities went up 12.7 per cent. Dr Bediako explained that the strong growth in mining and quarrying was reflected in the mineral production of gold, oil and quarrying while growth of the manufacturing sector was led by a strong growth in the manufacturing of wood, petroleum, chemicals, motor vehicles and furniture. �The growth in crops was mainly led by increases in cocoa production,� she added. Dr Bediako gave the most notable performance of sectors in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, which included crops and cocoa which increased from 22.1 per cent to 82.3 per cent, mining and quarrying increasing from 9.8 per cent to 282.3 per cent and construction sector jumped from 4.3 per cent to 25.2 per cent. The rest were transport and storage which rose from 7.7 per cent to 51.7 per cent, and financial and insurance activities went up from negative 23.8 per cent to 76 per cent. Dr Bediako described the 2011 second quarter performance of the economy as encouraging, saying it indicated that government was on track to achieving its annual projected growth of 13 per cent. GDP is Ghana�s official measure of economic growth and it is calculated using the production approach. Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing seasonal effects from time series to reveal non-seasonal features with the objective to provide a clearer view of short term movements and trends and also to allow earlier identification of turning points.