Clear signs that Ghana’s economy is on growth trajectory emerged Thursday after the provisional Gross Domestic Product grew 5.7 per cent year-on-year compared to the 5.4 per cent recorded in 2018 with ICT, oil and gas a major contributors.
However, non-Oil Gross Domestic Product for the second quarter of 2019 was down at 4.3 per cent compared to 5 per cent in the same period of last year.
Details made available to Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), showed that the main growth drivers for the performance from April to June 2019 were Information and Communication, Mining and Quarrying, Health and Social Work and Real Estate.
Besides, the Services sector recorded the highest growth of 6.5 per cent, industry followed with 6.1 per cent, while Agric posted a 3.1 per cent growth rate.
Under the services sector, Information and Communication sub-sector increased from 14.6 per cent in quarter two of 2018 to 52 .8 per cent in the second quarter of 2019.
The ICT sector was followed by Real Estate, which recorded a 14.9 per cent jump in growth, recovering from its 0.8 per cent contraction in the second quarter in 2018.
Whereas Education had 8.9 per cent and Hotel and Restaurant 6.6 per cent, Finance and Insurance recorded 1.4 per cent growth while Public, Administration and Defense, social sector fell by 2.8 per cent.
On the industry sector, Mining and Quarrying sub-sector slowed to 14.0 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 compared to 24.7 per cent in 2018.
The Health and Social Work sub-sector also slowed to 10.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 from 26.8 per cent in 2018.
Construction declined by 8.3 per cent, Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste management and remediation was down by 7.9 per cent. Electricity also went down by 7.5 per cent.
Livestock 5.7 growth pushed the overall growth of the Agric Sector, while crops increase by 4 per cent. However, Forestry was down by 6.5 per cent, while fishing also declined by 2.1 per cent.
In cumulative figures, the Services sector had a share of 49.1 per cent within the period under review.
The data showed that currently, Ghana economy is growing better and faster than the rest of the sub-Saharan Africa including the Nigerian economy both on a year-on-year basis and sectoral standings.
