Ghana economy grew 5.6% in third quarter of 2019 – Government Statistician

The country’s economy grew a provisional 5.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2019 year-on-year compared to the 7.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2018.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate without oil and gas for the same period was 4.6 per cent compared to 8.5 per cent in 2018.

Professor Samuel Annim, the Government Statistician, said the Agriculture sector recorded the highest growth of 5.9 per cent, while the Industry and Services sectors both expanded by 5.7 per cent.

The Services sector remained the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy in the third quarter of 2019 with a share of 45.8 per cent of GDP.

Industry and Agriculture had 35.7 per cent and 18.5 per cent share of GDP respectively.

Under the services sector, Information and Communication sub-sector grew by 5.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2019 compared to 11.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2019.

The real Estate sector also expanded by 5.6 per cent in the third quarter up from 3.8 per cent in the second quarter.

“There is no contraction in the growth of any of the sub-sectors within the service sector,” Prof. Annim said.

Within the industry sector, the electricity sub-sector recorded 2.7 per cent, up from negative 1.9 per cent growth recorded in the second quarter of 2019.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector slowed to 2.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2019 compared to 3.4 per cent in 2019, while the Manufacturing sub-sector grew by 1.2 per cent.

Construction recorded a growth rate of 0.4 per cent during the period compared to negative 2.1 per cent in the second quarter.

In the Agriculture sector, the crops sub-sector grew by 1.7 per cent compared to 0.8 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Livestock sub-sector grew by 1.1 per cent, while the Forestry and Logging sub-sector recorded the least growth rate of negative 0.2 per cent.

Source: GNA