IMF cuts Ghana’s GDP growth rate for 2022
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut Ghana’s GDP growth rate for 2022 by 1%.
The IMF projects Ghana to grow by 5.2% this year, a 1% reduction in its earlier forecast of 6.2% GDP growth in 2022.
In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said the Ghanaian economy will expand by 5.1% in 2023, 0.1% lower than the 2022 forecast, while it returns to the pre-pandemic GDP growth levels of 7.5% in 2027.
From the report, the Ghanaian economy is expected to be benefit from high commodity prices, particularly crude oil and expected increase in gold production.
Global demand for oil in 2022 is projected to increase to 99.7 million barrels a day (mb/d) in 2022, up 2.1 mb/d from 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.
Improved aggregate demand and supply of goods and exports will influence the expansion of the economy, which before the Covid-19 pandemic had been growing at a rate of about 6% on the average.
Industry is expected to pick up this year, whilst the Services and Agriculture sectors are expected to consolidate their gains in 2022.
Read: AfCFTA: 73.8% of Ghanaian traders lack understanding of “Goods and Services Protocol”
Ghana exceeds 5% GDP growth target for 2021
The Ghanaian economy, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) expanded by 5.4 percentage points in 2021.
The recorded positive GDP growth, the Service notes, exceeded government’s 5% GDP growth target for 2021 by 0.4 percentage points.
It is also 5 percentage points higher than the 0.4% GDP growth recorded in 2020.
Per the new data released by the GSS, the strong growth rate was driven by the Services sector, particularly the Information, Communication and Technology (33.1%) and the Agriculture sector, such as Fishing (13.4%).
The Services sector recorded the highest GDP growth rate of 9.4% in 2021.
The Information & Communication sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year GDP growth rate of 33.1% while the Education sub-sector recorded the lowest (-3.7%.).
Hotels and Restaurants as well as Financial and Insurance Activities grew by 4.3% and 2.4% respectively.
The Agriculture sector grew at a rate of 8.4% in 2021. The Fishing sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate of 13.4 %, while the Forestry and Logging sub-sector recorded the lowest (4.7%). Livestock and Crops recorded growth rates of 5.5% and 8.9%.
Industry however contracted by 0.8% for 2021. This was influenced by contraction in the Mining and Quarrying sub sector (12.1%)
The Water & Sewerage sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year annual GDP growth rate of 13.3% for 2021.
Manufacturing, Electricity and Construction expanded by 7.8%, 7.4% and 5.7% respectively.
The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for the 4th quarter of 2021 was however 7.0% compared to the 4.3% recorded for Q4 2020.
Given the 5.4% GDP growth recorded in 2021, the corresponding per capita GDP for 2021 is $2,565 with the size of the economy expanding to GHS 459 billion.
