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Economy grows by 3.9% ...over 12 months up to mid 2015

Feature Article Economy grows by 3.9 ...over 12 months up to mid 2015
SEP 27, 2015 LISTEN

The Deputy Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh, has stated in a press briefing in Accra that the provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for the second quarter of 2015, grew by 3.9% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, both the services and the industry sectors have increased their share of GDP at the expense of the agricultural sector.

The 2015 growth of 3.9% which includes oil and gas, compares favourably with the revised estimate of 2.6% in the second quarter of 2014. This implies that Ghana is looking good to achieve better economic growth this year than last year.

He further revealed that the provisional GDP estimate at current prices including oil for the second quarter of 2015, was GHȼ32,000.3 million compared with the revised estimate for the first quarter of 2015 of GHȼ28,961.1 million.

He said the provisional GDP estimate at current prices excluding oil for the second quarter of 2015 was GHȼ30,497.0 million, while the revised estimate for the first quarter of 2015 was GHȼ27,671.5 million.

Baah Wadieh, also announced that the provisional GDP estimate including oil, computed at constant 2006 prices for the second quarter of 2015 was GHȼ8,214.4 million while the revised estimate for the first quarter of 2015 was GHȼ7,703.6 million.

Again, he said, the GDP estimate excluding oil for the second quarter of 2015 at constant 2006 prices was GHȼ7,648.1 million while the revised value recorded for the first quarter of 2015 was GHȼ7,197.3 million.

Growth over the 12 months up to mid 2015 has been driven primarily by finance and insurance, which expanded by 52.7% and construction which grew by 45.1%. Next was public administration, defence and social security which grew by 20.5% then information and communication by 18.4%. The health sub-sector grew by 16.9%, livestock by 13.4% and water and sewerage by 10.9%. Real estate, professional, administrative and support services grew by 9.9%, fishing by 9.5%, education by 6.3% and forestry and logging by 6.1%. Instructively, the extractive industries – mining and quarrying and oil and gas – only contributed 2.9% and 2.1% respectively, both sub-sectors the victims of the price collapse in global commodity markets.

Conversely, major contractions were observed in the electricity (-23.5%), transport and storage (-11.3%) and hotels and restaurants (-10.9%) sub-sectors. Significant contractions were also experienced in community, social and personal service activities (-9.8%), trade, repair of vehicles and household goods sub-sector (-5.9%) and crops (-5.6%).

Detailing the contributions to the size of the economy of each of the various sectors, Baah Wadieh stressed that “The Services sector recorded the highest share of annual GDP at 54.1%, as at the middle of this year representing a recorded amount of GHȼ72, 427.7 in 2015 compared with the recorded amount of GHȼ56, 248.1 in 2014, with a share of annual GDP of 51.9% thus showing a 2.2% increase in its share of GDP between mid 2014 and the middle of 2015.

This is followed by the Industry sector with a share of annual GDP at 26.9%, with the record amount of GHȼ35, 957.5 in 2015 compared with the 2014 amount of GHȼ 28, 766.8 amounting to a 26.6% share of annual GDP translating into an 0.3% increase in share of GDP.

The smallest proportion of the economy is provided by the Agriculture sector recording an annual GDP share of 19.0% with an amount of GHȼ25, 429.9, in 2015 compared with the 2014 record of GHȼ23, 278.2 or 21,5% of GDP showing a drop of 2.5% in terms of contribution to the size of the economy..

The Deputy Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh added, “the quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted GDP growth rate for the 2nd quarter was 0.9%. This means that the value of goods and services produced in the 2nd quarter of 2015 grew by 0.9% relative to the 1.0% growth rate recorded in the 1st quarter of 2015.”

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