Growth in the financial services sector in the country picked up in the second quarter of the year, recovering from a 23. 8 per cent decline in the second quarter of last year to an impressive 76 per cent growth rate in the second quarter of 2011.
The 76 per cent year-on-year growth in the financial and insurance sub-sector of the services sector is an impressive turnaround from the sub-sector�s unexpectant slump in growth in the second quarter of last year.
The 2011 second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the monetary value of goods and services produced in the country figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service, indicated that the phenomenal growth in the financial and insurance sub-sector consequently caused the services sector to record a growth rate of 14 per cent in the period under review as against the 4. 1 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2011.
The Head of the National Accounts and Economic Indicators at the Ghana Statistical Service, Mrs Bernice Serwah Ofosu-Baadu, explained to the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview that the growth in the sub-sector was mainly as a result of massive improvements in the loan recovery rates of financial service companies and clean premium books kept by insurance institutions in the country within the period under review.
The data we have show a tremendous improvement in the net income (the difference between interests received and interests paid) of the banks and insurance companies in the second quarter of 2011, as against the same quarter last year, Mrs Ofosu-Baadu said.
She, however, declined to give figures on the said rise but noted that the banks had the highest weight in that sub-sector.
According to her, the exact cause of the rise was difficult to explain since unlike agriculture, financial and insurance activities, especially regarding the interests received by these institutions, is not a seasonal event where we can say it was their season in the second quarter of 2011.
Mrs Ofosu-Baadu said the reversal in the subsector�s growth rate was expected but we did not expect the growth to jump that high.
We actually cannot predict what will happen in the coming quarters; anything can happen as the financial and insurance activities have nothing to do with seasons, the head of national accounts and economic indicators said.
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