GDP Hits 5.7 Per Cent in Second Quarter

By Kingsley Asare

Ghana's economy year-on-year in the second quarter of this year recorded an increase in growth driven by the oil and gas sector.

The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year including oil and gas provisionally stood at 5.7 percent, from 5.4 percent recorded in the same period last year.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel K. Annim who disclosed this in Accra yesterday when he released the provisional GDP growth rate estimates for the second quarter of 2019, said the non-oil GDP growth rate stood at 4.3 per cent compared with the 5.0 per cent recorded in the same period 2018.

"The main sub-sectors driving the growth in the April to June 2019 GDP were Information and Communication, Real Estate, Mining and Quarrying, Health and Social Work," he said.

He said the growth rate Information and Communication sub-sector increased from 14.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 52.8 percent in quarter two of 2019.

Prof Annim said the real estate sub-sector recovered from a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 to 52.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2019.

"The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector slowed to 14.0 in quarter two of 2019 from 24.7 in quarter two of 2019, while the Health and Social sectors slowed to 10.3 percent in quarter one of 2019 from 26.8 percent in the same period of 2018," he said.

He said the services sector year-on-year recorded the highest growth rate, which stood at 6.5 percent from 0.5 percent recorded in the same period last year.

The growth in the services sector, he said, was influenced by Information and Communication, Real Estate and Health and Social Work, which grew at 52.8, 14.9, and 10.3 percent respectively.

Industry, Prof Annim said recorded a year-on-year grew by 6.1 in the second quarter of this year from 11.1 per cent in the same period last year, driven by mining and quarrying and manufacturing.

Agriculture year-on-year, the Government Statistician, said grew by 3.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year, from 4.8 percent in the same period last year, saying livestock and crop which recorded growth rates of 5.7 and 4.0 per cent respectively drove the growth of the sector.

Prof Annim said the second quarter 2019 GDP estimate at current prices in purchaser's value stood at GH¢84, 126 million compared to GH¢72, 000.4 million in the same period last year.

He said the non-oil GDP (GDP without oil and gas) estimate at current prices for the second quarter of this year stood at GH¢81, 353.6 million compared to GH¢69, 890.5 million in the same period last year.

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