Ghana economic growth slows to 3.3% in first quarter of 2022

Ghana’s economy grew 3.3 per cent in the first three months to March 2022 compared with 3.6 per cent in the same period of 2021, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday.

However, the first quarter growth is the lowest since the country recovered from the contractions recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing a press conference on the Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter, Professor Samuel Annim, the Government Statistician, said the growth was said growth was driven by five areas of Information and Communication 1.0 per cent, Crops and Cocoa 00.9 per cent, Transport and Storage 0.4 per cent, Manufacturing 0.3 per cent and Trade: Repair of Vehicles, Household goods 0.3 per cent.

Overall, the year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for Agriculture was 5.6 per cent for the first quarter of 2022 with the fishing sub-sector recording the highest year-on-year growth rate of 26.1 per cent while the Forestry & Logging sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction of 0.5 per cent.

The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for the Industry sector is 1.3 per cent for the first quarter of 2022.

The Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management & Remediation Activities sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 25.4 per cent for 2022, while the Construction sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction of negative 2.6 per cent.

For the first quarter of 2022, the Services sector recorded a year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 3.7 per cent.

On a year-on-year basis, the Information & Communication sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 26.6 per cent while the Professional, Administrative & Support Service activities sub-sector recorded the lowest growth of negative 12.8 per cent.

Overall, the Services sector remains the largest sector of the economy with a 45 per cent share of GDP while that of Industry was 32 per cent and Agriculture 23 per cent.

Source: GNA