Ghana’s economic growth slows as cocoa and mining sectors contract
Ghana’s economy recorded a slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2024, growing at 3.6% year-on-year, compared to the 7.2 per cent expansion in the previous quarter, according to provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The decline was largely driven by contractions in the mining and quarrying sector, which shrank by 8.2 per cent, and the cocoa sector, which declined by 21.4 per cent, marking its sixth consecutive quarterly contraction.
At current prices the value of the country's economy stook at GH₵331.1 billion and non-oil at GH₵324.3 billion.
The Current Annual GDP (All inclusive, Non-oil, and Non-gold) also crossed GH₵1trillion for the first time in 2024. The current GDP (Oil and Gold) was GH₵1.17trillion; current GDP (non-oil) was GH₵1.12trillion and current GDP (non-gold) was GH₵1.08trillion.
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Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on March 10, 2025, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim explained that the overall economic slowdown was significantly influenced by the struggles within the industry sector, which posted marginal growth of just 0.2 percent in the final quarter.
“The slowdown in the economy in the last quarter of 2024 was largely as a result of the industry sector growing by 0.2 percent,” he stated.
He attributed this weak performance to the sharp contraction in mining and quarrying, which accounted for about 43 percent of the industry sector's total value.
“Once you are seeing an 8.2 per cent contraction in the mining and quarrying sector, it significantly influences the 0.2 per cent that we saw for the industry sector and also the 3.6 overall growth rate,” he explained.
Industry and agriculture sectors struggle
Despite challenges in mining, the construction sub-sector showed signs of recovery, expanding for the first time in a year.
“In contrast to previous years that saw a contraction in all four quarters of 2024, we saw an expansion in the construction sub-sector,” Prof. Annim stated.
The agriculture sector grew by 3.1 percent, but its performance was dragged down by the continued contraction in cocoa, Ghana’s key export commodity. The cocoa sector shrank by 21.4 per cent, reflecting ongoing challenges such as unfavourable weather conditions, disease outbreaks, and disruptions in global supply chains.
The services sector remained the dominant contributor to GDP, accounting for 49.2 per cent, followed by industry at 31.9 per cent and agriculture at 19.0 per cent.
Prof. Annim noted that the mining and quarrying sector had performed well in the first three quarters of 2024, contributing to industry growth. However, the fourth-quarter downturn in mining significantly impacted the economy’s overall trajectory.
“Until the last quarter of 2024, mining and quarrying was doing very well from the perspective of the extractives. In the first three quarters, we saw positive influences both from the mining and quarrying and the construction sub-sectors,” he observed.