Economy expands by 6.6% in Q3 2021
Ghana’s economy is noted to have expanded by 6.6 percentage points in third quarter of 2021.
The growth according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is higher than the 5.1% recorded in the second quarter of 2021.
The growth signifies that the economy grew strongly last year, perhaps higher than most forecasts, despite the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic
Excluding oil, the economy grew at a rate of 8.6% in first half of 2021, compared to the 6.5% in the second half of 2021
From the figures, the half-year growth rate of the country in 2021 was stronger than the provisional figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service, which pegged the second quarter growth rate at 3.9%.
For the sectors, the services sector recorded the highest growth rate, expanding significantly by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter of 2021. It was followed by the agriculture sector, which grew by 9.2%.
However, industry contracted by 2.0%, largely from a decline in oil production and its sale.
In the second quarter of 2021, Ghana’s economy expanded by 3.9%, according to provisional figures from the Ghana Statistical Service.
During the same period last year where Covid-19 had emerged, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was -5.7%.
However, GDP growth rate without oil and gas (Non-Oil GDP) for second quarter 2021 was 5.2%, which is against a growth rate of -5.8% recorded the same period last year.
According to the figures, the increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was driven by a strong pick-up in the Services and Agriculture sectors.
The Health and Social Work (20.75%), Information and Communication Technology (20%), Hotel and Restaurants (18.7%) as well as Fishing (12.7%) Sub-sectors expanded significantly.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s public debt has crossed the dreaded 80 percent mark according to new data made available by the Central Bank.
In its Summary of Economic and Financial Data report for March 2022, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) pegged the country’s total public debt as a percentage to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 80.1% at end-December 2021.
In nominal terms, this translates into some GHS 351.8bn, an increase of GHS 10bn from the GHS 341.8bn (77.8% of GDP) total public debt recorded in September 2021.
On a year-on-year basis, the country’s debt marks an increase of GHS 60.2bn – from December 2020 to December 2021.
Accounting for the chunk of the country’s public debt was domestic debt which has now increased to GHS 181.8bn from the GHS 178.1bn recorded in September 2021.
On a year-on-year basis (Dec. 2020 – Dec. 2021), that represents an increase of GHS 32bn.
Domestic debt as a percentage of GDP as at end-December 2021, stood at 41.4%.
External debt under the review period also increased to GHS 170bn from GHS 163.7bn in September 2021.
On a year-on-year basis (Dec. 2020 – Dec. 2021), external debt grew from GHS 141.8bn to GHS 170bn.
As a percentage of GDP, external debt as at end-December 2021, stood at 38.7%.
The country’s public debt of 80.1% as now confirmed by the BoG, affirms earlier projections by economic analysts in the country and even the World Bank about Ghana’s public debt exceeding the 80% threshold and further threatening its debt sustainability programmes.
