Impact of Covid-19 on real sectors of the economy in charts
The charts provide pictorial information on how the variables in the composite index of economic activity have been impacted by the COVID19 pandemic shock and how these indicators are recovering following the gradual lifting of partial restrictions which begun in May 2020.
The Ghana Statistical Service reported an estimated GDP growth of 3.1 percent for the first quarter of 2021, yet another sign of strong recovery from the impact of the pandemic, even though still lower than the pre-pandemic growth of 7.0 percent recorded for the first quarter of 2020.
Non-oil GDP grew at 4.6 percent, from 7.9 percent growth in the same comparative period. Beyond the first quarter GDP outturn, high frequency economic indicators for the second quarter of the year point to a sharp pickup in economic activity relative to last year.
The Bank’s updated Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) recorded a strong annual growth of 33.1 percent in May 2021, relative to the contraction of 10.2 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
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The sharp increase broadly reflects some base-drift effects as well as improvement in industrial production activities, domestic consumption, pick up in import activities, steady rise in construction activities and a rise in air-passenger arrivals, during the period.
The latest confidence surveys by the Bank of Ghana reflected mixed sentiments. Consumer sentiments softened on the back of a variety of factors including the implementation of the recently announced revenue measures contained in the 2021 Budget, while business sentiments remained somewhat broadly unchanged due to expectations of improvement in company growth prospects.
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