Ghana’s economic growth slows to 12% year-on-year in 2011 third quarter

Ghana’s unadjusted gross domestic product (GDP) growth has declined to 12% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2011 from the revised 17.6% figure recorded in the second quarter of 2011, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Wednesday January 25, 2012.

Figures from the GSS show that the industry sector recorded the highest growth of 32.7%, followed by the services sector with 5.8% and agriculture 5.2%.

Within the industry sector, the influence of crude oil pushed the growth of the mining and quarrying sub-sector to 263.1%, according to the figures while “growth in construction was also high at 25.9% with manufacturing recording a negative growth of 15.4%.

The crops sub-sector which included cocoa increased by 10.2% but forestry and fishing had negative growths recording -11.0% and -29.9% respectively.

The main contributors to the increased economic activity in the Services sector were transport and storage, information and communication, business and other service activities, said Acting Government Statistician Dr Philomena Nyarko.

Seasonally, the statistics showed that “adjusted quarter-on-quarter estimates of the real Gross Domestic Product showed a decline of 0.2% in the third quarter of 2011 over the second quarter of 2011.”

The Industry sector grew by 10.1% with Services up by 3.1% while Agriculture dipped by 6.8%during the third quarter, it noted.

By Ekow Quandzie