Ghana’s GDP growth rate revised from 1.4% to 4.9%
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for this year has been revised from 1.4% to 4.9% by the World Bank.
The World Bank’s new growth rate projection of 4.9% is in line with government’s 5% growth rate projection for 2021.
The revision of the country’s growth rate the Bretton Wood institution asserts, comes on the back of strong exports recorded within the year.
“Ghana is projected to exhibit growth of, respectively, 4.9% and 5.5% in 2021 and 2022, reflecting strong growth in exports. The economy performed relatively well despite the outbreak of the Delta variant thanks to the fiscal support by the government”, said the World Bank in its latest October 2021 Africa Pulse report.
The Banks’ June 2021 Global Economic Prospects Report predicted a 1.4% expansion in the economy this year, citing slow growth in most sub-sectors of services and industry.
This is despite expected resilience in agriculture sector which it said will not be sufficient to offset the Covid-19 pandemic’s lingering adverse impact on the oil and other sectors of the economy.
The World Bank in the Africa Pulse report also said “in an effort to meet its ambitious domestic revenue mobilization targets (starting in 2021), the government is implementing planned spending cuts (starting in 2022) and the Energy Sector Recovery Programme.”
Ghana received the equivalent of $1 billion in the recent International Monetary Fund SDR allocation, part of which will go to support economic recovery under the COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) programme.
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Economy grows 3.9% in Q2 2021
Robust growth in the Service and Agriculture sectors for the second quarter of this year resulted in a positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 3.9 percentage points.
Compared to same period last year, recorded GDP for Q2 2020 was negative 5.7 percent as a result of the adverse impact of the Covid pandemic on the economy.
Announcing the GDP growth rate for Q2 2021, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Annim, remarked that the increase in the growth rate was driven by a strong pick-up in the Services and Agriculture sectors.
Adding that the growth rate could have been higher, but for the contraction in Industry which was influenced by a shrink in the mining and quarrying sub sector.
The Services sector recorded the highest growth of 11.0% and was followed by the Agriculture sector with a growth of 5.5%.
The Industry sector however contracted by 4.3%.
