body-container-line-1

Ghana’s Economy Expands 4.9% In First Quarter Of 2020 – Statistical Service

Economy & Investments Ghanas Economy Expands 4.9 In First Quarter Of 2020 – Statistical Service
JUN 18, 2020 LISTEN

Ghana's economy expanded 4.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 6.7 percent in the same period last year.

This was driven mainly by the services sector, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Wednesday.

The Services sector recorded the highest growth of 9.5%; the Agriculture sector expanded by 2.8% and the Industry sector by 1.5%.

The Services sector contributed 3.6 percentage points (73.1%) to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 4.9% in the first quarter.

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician announced the figures at a News briefing in Tamale on Wednesday.

Professor Annim said the main sub-sectors driving GDP growth in January to March 2020 GDP were Information & Communication, Manufacturing, Education and Public Administration and Defence, and Social Security.

Information and Communication sub-sector expanded from 67.6% in quarter one of 2019 to 77.4% in the first quarter of 2020.

Its contribution to GDP growth was 2.10 percentage points or 42.7%.

The manufacturing sub-sector recorded a lower growth of 5.0 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 5.6% in same period of 2019.

It contributed 0.60 percentage points or 12.2 percent to the overall GDP growth.

The Public Administration & Defence, Social Security sub-sector expanded by 13.6 percent in quarter one of 2020 from 9.0 per cent in quarter one of 2019 contributing 0.40 percentage points to GDP growth.

Negative contributors to the first-quarter GDP growth came from the sub-sectors of Trade, Repair of Vehicle, Household Goods, Construction, Forestry & Logging and Professional, Administrative & Support activities.

Construction sub-sector contracted by 6.9 per cent during the period and contributed -10.6 per cent to GDP growth.

GDP growth rate without oil and gas (Non-Oil GDP) for the first quarter of 2020 is 4.9 percent which compares to the same period in 2019 with a growth rate of 6.0 percent.

---citinewsroom

body-container-line