Ghana's GDP grows by 4.7% in Q1 2024, Driven by mining and ICT sectors
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has reported a 4.7percent increase in the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2024, compared to the previous quarter's growth of 1.2percent.
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Key drivers of this growth were identified as Mining and Quarrying, contributing 12.9 percent, Information and Communication at 17.9 percent, Crops with 4.3 percent, Construction at 8.2%, and Accommodation and Food Service Activities at 9.4 percent. Conversely, several sectors contracted, including Health and Social Work (-8.8percent), Electricity (-7.5percent), Public Administration, Defense, and Social Security (-5.3percent), Education (-4.9percent), Other Personal Service Activities (-2.9percent), and Forestry & Logging (-1.2percent).
Sector contributions
In Q1 2024, the Services sector remained the largest in Ghana’s economy, accounting for 45.6 percent of GDP at basic prices. The Industry and Agriculture sectors contributed 30.6 percent and 23.8 percent, respectively.
Year-on-year, Agriculture grew by 4.1 percent, the Industry sector by 6.8 percent, and Services by 3.3 percent. Quarter-on-quarter, these sectors grew by 1.1 percent, 1.8 percent, and 0.9 percent, respectively.
Agriculture Sector
Within Agriculture, Crops experienced the fastest growth, both year-on-year (4.3 percent) and quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted (1.2 percent). In contrast, Forestry & Logging saw a decline of -1.2 percent year-on-year and -0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter. Crops accounted for 89.5 percent and 79.9 percent of Agriculture’s total nominal GDP and real GDP, respectively.
Industry Sector
In the Industry sector, Mining & Quarrying led with a year-on-year growth of 12.9 percent and 3.0% quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted. Electricity, however, contracted by -7.5 percent year-on-year and -2.2 percent quarter-on-quarter. Mining & Quarrying made up 38.6 percent and 38.1 percent of Industry’s total nominal GDP and real GDP, respectively.
Services Sector
Information & Communication within the Services sector saw the highest growth, with a year-on-year increase of 17.9 percent and 4.2 percent quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted. Health & Social Work, on the other hand, declined by -8.8 percent year-on-year and -2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. Information & Communication Activities accounted for 7.7 percent of Services’ total nominal GDP and 14.9 percent of real GDP.