The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said that Ghana’s economy grew by 4.7 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, as against 3.8 per cent recorded in the same period of 2023.
According to the GSS report, Mining and quarrying, information and communications and the crops sub-sectors witnessed enormous activities that pushed growth in productivity in the economy in the first quarter of the year over the same period last year.
The other contributors to the growth in total productivity, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for the first quarter of this year, are the construction sub-sector, accommodation and food service activities sub-sectors.
Provisional real quarterly gross domestic product (QGDP) growth rate, including oil and gas, over a one-year cycle (year-on year), is 4.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. The growth rate recorded in the first quarter of 2023 was 3.8 per cent over the same period in 2022.
The GDP growth rate without oil and gas (non-Oil GDP) for the first quarter of 2024 is 4.2 per cent, compared to the 4.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2023.
The report by Daily Graphic on Wednesday quoted the Government Statistician, Prof, Samuel Kobina Annim, as saying in Accra on Tuesday that industry recorded the highest growth of 6.8 per cent, followed by the agriculture sector at 4.1 per cent
“The drivers of growth were the mining and quarrying sub-sectors which contributed 1.48 per cent, followed by the information and communications sub-sectors which contributed 1.01 per cent and crop sub-sector 0.74 per cent.
“Other drivers included the construction sub-sector with a contribution of 0.51 per cent as well as accommodation and food services activities with a contribution of 0.36 per cent to the gross domestic product of the country in the first quarter of 2024,” he said.
According to Prof. Annim, the provisional quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product (including oil) growth rate for the first quarter of 2024 was 1.2 per cent.
He explained that the agriculture sub-sector expanded by 1.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, compared to 1.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, while in the first quarter of 2024, the growth of crops and cocoa sub-sector declined by 0.2 percentage points, growing at 1.2 per cent compared to 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023.
GIK/APA