Economy grows by 5.4% in second quarter

The economy grew by 5.4 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, compared to 11. 1 per cent recorded for the second quarter of 2017, provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated. 

The value of the economy, including oil, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was GH¢71.8 billion compared to GH¢62.7 billion in the second quarter of 2017.

The growth of the economy in the second quarter was largely driven by the industry sector which recorded the highest growth of 11.1 per cent. The agriculture sector followed with 4.8 per cent and the services sector recorded a growth rate of 0.5 per cent.

The acting Government Statistician, Mr Baah Wadieh, said the sectoral distribution in the second quarter of 2018 showed that the services sector maintained its dominance with 48.4 per cent contribution to GDP, followed by 35.1 per cent and agriculture with 16.5 per cent.

Sub–sector growth

Mr Wadieh explained that the sub-sectors that recorded double–digit positive growth rates were health and social work with 26.8 per cent, mining and quarrying with 24.7 per cent and Information and Communication with 14.6 per cent.

He added that contraction was however observed in the financial and insurance activities (-13.4 per cent), professional, administrative and support services activities (-5.9 per cent), water and sewerage (-3.5 per cent), trade, repairs of vehicles, household goods (-1.5 per cent), transport and storage (-1.1 per cent), and real estate (-0.8 per cent) sub-sectors.

Quarterly GDP

He said the provisional quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted real GDP, including oil growth rate for the second quarter of 2018, was 1.3 per cent.

In the Agriculture sector, the Livestock sub- sector grew by 1.1 per cent, compared to 1.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2018. The crops sub-sector grew by 1.0 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, compared to 1.4 per cent growth recorded in the first quarter of 2018. The fishing sub-sector recorded the least growth rate of 0.5 per cent within the agriculture sector.

Within the Industry sector, the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector grew by 5.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, compared to 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2018.

“The Electricity sub-sector grew by 2.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, compared to 0.2 per cent growth recorded in the first quarter of 2018. Water and Sewerage sub-sector recorded the least growth rate of - 0.9 per cent, compared to 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2018,” he said.

In the services sector, health and social work grew by 5.9 per cent, same as the growth rate recorded in the first quarter of 2018. The Information and Communication sub-sector grew by 3.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 3.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2018. The least growth rate of -3.8 percent was observed in the Finance & Insurance sub-sector.

Producer inflation goes down

Inflation from the producer’s perspective recorded a 1.4 percentage point decline in the month of September. The rate for September 2018 was 5.6 per cent compared to 7.0 per cent recorded in August 2018.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers for the production of their goods and services.

Mr Wadieh said the decline in the inflation rate for Mining and Quarrying as well as the Manufacturing sector led to the overall decline in the Producer inflation for the period under review.

The producer price inflation in the Mining and Quarrying sub-sector decreased by 1.5 percentage points over the August 2018 rate of 1.9 per cent to record 0.4 per cent. The Producer inflation for Manufacturing which constitutes more than two-thirds of total industry decreased by 1.7 percentage points to record 8.3 per cent.

The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation of -0.2 per cent, same as the rate recorded in August 2018.