Economy grows by 5.6% in 3rd quarter

The economy grew by 5.6 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019, slower than the 7.4 per cent growth recorded in the third quarter of 2018, provisional figures from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) have indicated.

The value of the economy, including oil, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant 2013 prices was GH¢41.5 billion compared to GH¢39.30 billion in the third quarter of 2018.

GDP growth rate without oil and gas (non-oil GDP) for the third quarter 2018 was 4.6 per cent, which compares with the same period in 2018 with a growth rate of 8.5 per cent.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Annim, who announced this at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, said the real GDP growth, including oil, for the third quarter could be attributed to the high growth rates recorded in about nine sub-sectors.

He mentioned the sub-sectors as information and communication (26.6 per cent), real estate (22.1 per cent), electricity (10.8 per cent), education (9.5 per cent) and mining and quarrying (8.5 per cent).

Sectoral growth

Prof. Annim said the agriculture sector recorded the highest growth of 5.9 per cent while the industry and services sectors both expanded by 5.7 per cent.

The sectors’ growth was largely influenced by growth in the crops and livestock sub-sectors.

“In the agriculture sector, the crops sub-sector grew by 1.7 per cent, compared to 0.8 per cent in the 2nd quarter of 2019,” he said. 

He said within the industry sector, the electricity sub-sector recorded 2.7 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2019.

In the services sector, information and communication grew by 5.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2019.

Contribution to GDP

Prof. Annim noted that the services sector still remained the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy in the third quarter of 2019 with a share of 45.8 per cent of GDP.

It was closely followed by industry, which contributed 35.7 per cent. The agriculture sector lagged behind with an 18.5 per cent contribution in the third quarter of 2019.

The negative contributors to the GDP in the third quarter of 2019 came from the sub-sectors of forestry (-0.6 per cent) and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-1.3 per cent).

Producer inflation

Prof. Annim said the Producer Price Inflation (PPI) rate for November 2019 was 9.9 per cent. The PPI measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.

The rate represents a 1.0 percentage point increase in producer inflation relative to the 8.9 per cent recorded in October 2019.

The producer price inflation in the mining and quarrying sub-sector decreased by 0.5 percentage points over the October 2019 rate of 34.4 per cent to record 33.9 per cent in November 2019.

The producer inflation for manufacturing, which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry, increased by 1.4 percentage points to record 4.5 per cent.

“The utilities sub-sector recorded inflation rate of 12.7 per cent for November 2019, indicating a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point over the October 2019 rate of 12.6 per cent,” he said.