Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate bounced back from negative growth levels in the second and third quarters of 2020 on the back of a 8.2 and 4.6 percentage points growth in the agricultural and services sectors for Q4 2020.
Ghana’s GDP growth for the second and third quarters of 2020 contracted by 3.2 percent and 1.1 percent respectively due to the adverse impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
The contraction in the GDP growth rate was due to a decline in the industry and services sectors with both contracting by 5.1 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, the agricultural however, posted a positive growth rate of 8.3 percent in Q3 2020.
Fourth quarter GDP growth data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicate that the services sector rebounded from the 1.1 percent contraction in Q3 2020 to record a positive growth of 4.6 percent in Q4 2020.
The agricultural sector maintained its positive growth recording a growth rate of 8.2 percent for Q4 2020 – declining slightly by 0.1 percent from the 8.3 percent growth recorded in Q3 2020.
The industry sector for the period under review, however, recorded a negative growth of 0.4 percent. The negative growth rate is however, a significant improvement from the 5.1 percent negative growth rate recorded in Q3 2020.
The Services sector, the GSS notes, was the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy in the fourth quarter of 2020 with a share of 40 percent of GDP at basic prices.
The GDP share of Industry and Agriculture were 39 percent and 21 percent respectively.
Agriculture
The agriculture sector on quarter-on-quarter basis, saw the Crops and cocoa sub-sector grew by 2.8 percent in Q4 2020, compared to 1.2 percent in Q3 2020.
The Livestock subsector also grew by 1.7 percent compared to 1.1 percent recorded in Q3 2020, the Fishing sub-sector grew at a lower rate of 0.4 percent in Q4 2020, compared to a growth of 5.0 percent in Q3 2020.
The Forestry and Logging subsector contracted by 2.4 percent compared to a contraction of 2.9 percent in Q3 2020.
Industry
Within the industry sector, the construction sub-sector recorded 1.9 percent in Q4 2020, compared to 0.1 percent growth recorded Q3 2020.
The manufacturing sub-sector recovered from a contraction of 1.8 percent in Q3 2020 to grow by 2.9 percent in Q4 2020. Water supply, sewerage, waste management & remediation activities subsector grew by 0.5 percent in Q4 2020, compared to a contraction of 0.9 percent in Q3 2020.
Electricity sub-sector contracted by 3.7 percent in Q4 2020 compared to 4.3 percent growth recorded in Q3 2020. The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector continued to contract by 3.0 percent in Q4 2020, from -3.5 percent recorded in Q3 2020.
Services
In the Services sector, real estate and information & communication grew by 9.4 percent and 6.6 percent respectively in Q4 2020 compared to a contraction of 2.7 percent in Q3 2020. Repair of vehicles, household goods also grew to 1.4% percent in Q4 2020 from a contraction of 2.8 percent in Q3 2020.
Compared to Q3 2020, the public administration & defense, social security grew by a growth of 3.9 percent in Q4 2020. There were also contractions in the sub-sectors of hotel and restaurants (-14.5%) and professional, administrative & support (-1.2%).
Meanwhile, Ghana for the fourth quarter of 2020 recorded a non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 4.5 percent.
The recorded non-oil GDP growth rate for Q4 2020 is however, 1.4 percentage points lower than the 5.9 percent non-oil GDP growth rate attained in the same period of Q4 2019.
Including oil and gas, recorded GDP growth rate for Q4 2020 is 7.8 percent as GDP in volume terms increased by 3.3 percent in Q4 2020.
