Ghana’s economy expanded 4.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 6.7 per cent in the same period last year, driven mainly by the services sector, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Wednesday.
The Services sector recorded the highest growth of 9.5 per cent; the Agriculture sector expanded by 2.8 per cent and the Industry sector by 1.5 per cent.
The Services sector contributed 3.6 percentage points (73.1 percent) to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 4.9 per cent in the first quarter.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician announced the figures at a News briefing in Tamale on Wednesday.
Professor Annim said the main sub-sectors driving GDP growth in January to March 2020 GDP were Information & Communication, Manufacturing, Education and Public Administration and Defence, and Social Security.
Information and Communication sub-sector expanded from 67.6 per cent in quarter one of 2019 to 77.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2020.
Its contribution to GDP growth was 2.10 percentage points or 42.7 per cent.
Manufacturing sub-sector recorded a lower growth of 5.0 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 5.6 per cent in same period of 2019.
It contributed 0.60 percentage points or 12.2 per cent to the overall GDP growth.
The Public Administration & Defence, Social Security sub-sector expanded by 13.6 per cent in quarter one of 2020 from 9.0 per cent in quarter one of 2019 contributing 0.40 percentage points to GDP growth.
Negative contributors to the first quarter GDP growth came from the sub-sectors of Trade, Repair of Vehicle, Household Goods Construction, Forestry & Logging and Professional, Administrative & Support activities.
Construction sub-sector contracted by 6.9% during the period and contributed -10.6 per cent to GDP growth.
GDP growth rate without oil and gas (Non-Oil GDP) for first quarter 2020 is 4.9 per cent which compares to the same period in 2019 with a growth rate of 6.0 per cent.
