GHANA’S ECONOMY RECORDS 9% GROWTH IN SECOND QUARTER OF 2017

The country’s economy grew by 9% in the second quarter of this year, the highest recorded since the third quarter of 2014 when it grew by 13.5%, a release by the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) has shown. Compared to same period last year, the economy grew by 1.1%; and 6.6% compared to quarter one of 2017.

Measured in monetary terms, the oil GDP estimate at current prices at purchaser’s value for the second quarter of 2017 was GH¢45.3 billion compared to GH¢38 billion in the same period last year. The non-oil GDP estimate at current prices for the second quarter of 2017 was GH¢43.3 billion compared to GH¢37.6 billion in same period last year.

However growth in the oil sector depended for over 60% on higher oil prices on the world market.

This, Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh said, is attributable to the improvement in oil production which sped up growth in the mining and quarrying subsector. “The quarter two growth rate is mainly attributable to growth in the following subsectors. We have mining and quarrying which grew by 75 percent and under the mining and quarrying we have oil and gas growing by about 188 percent.

Then, we have health and social work which also grew by 18%; we have information and communication growing by 15.6%; then water and sewage by 13.3%; education by 9.6% and crops by 8.3%, with cocoa growing at 15.6%.

But by and large, you realize that the contribution of the mining and quarrying subsector far outstrips the other sectors. This is due to the input of oil and gas production because only that subsector grew by 188%, and it is because some of the repaired FPSOs came into production and Sankofa and TEN also produced oils and these shot up the growth rate of mining and quarrying,” Mr. Wadieh said.