Business News of Friday, 18 June 2021
Source: business24.com.gh
2021-06-18
GDP (quarter-on-quarter) performance in the last three years
Ghana’s economic growth in the first three months of the year fell to 3.1 percent year-on-year compared to 4.9 percent in the same period last year.
The growth was also lower than the expansion of 3.3 percent in the last three months of 2020 when the economy began its recovery from the pandemic.
Government Statistician Kobina Annim, speaking at a news conference on Wednesday to announce the GDP data, said manufacturing, which expanded by 1.3 percent in January to March after contracting in the last quarter of 2020, was one of the main drivers of growth.
The agricultural sector also grew at a rate of 4.3 percent, even though this was slower than the 8.2 percent expansion in the previous quarter.
Oil and gas however contracted by 16.2 percent, while the hospitality sector continued its downward spiral caused by the coronavirus, recording a contraction of 10.7 percent.
The contraction recorded in the oil and gas sector comes on the back of a forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the London-based research firm, of stormy times ahead for the sector.
In addition to the pandemic-induced price collapse recorded last year, the country’s inability to develop planned oilfields will lead to a stagnation in the sector’s growth, further hampering its contribution to the economy, the EIU said in its May country report.
Ghana’s economy is projected to grow at 5 percent both this year and in 2022. Growth is expected to inch up marginally in 2023 before falling to 4.9 percent in 2024.