Ghana’s economy recorded a growth of 6.6% in the third quarter of 2021 from the 3.9% expansion recorded in the preceding period. This is higher than the 4.03% growth recorded by Nigeria, the largest economy on the continent.
Recall that Nigeria’s economy grew by 4.03% year-on-year in Q3 2021 a slower growth compared to 5.01% recorded in the previous quarter.
Ghana recorded its fastest GDP growth rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A growth that has overturned the economic downturn recorded in the previous year. According to the government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim at a news conference, “That 6.6% growth rate that we recorded for the third quarter of 2021 is the closest we’ve got to the pre-2020 period, when COVID was just about to set in.”
He also added that, “This growth rate that we recorded is edging us closer to the GDP growth rate that we recorded during the pre-COVID-19 era, keeping in mind that we did record a 9% growth rate in the first quarter of 2019.”
Drivers of quarterly growth
According to the data from Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the crops, education, trade, repair of vehicles, household goods, manufacturing and information & communication sub-sectors of the economy were the main drivers of the GDP growth for the third quarter of 2021.
Notably, the education sector expanded by 24.2% in the review period, Health & Social works grew by 20.5%, Information and Communication (17%), Professional administrative & Support (16.7%), and Hotel & Restaurants (16.4%).
Others include public administration & defence, social security which grew by 16.3%, fishing grew by 14.3%, real estate expanded by 11.5%, while crops sub-sector recorded a GDP growth of 9.8%.
In terms of sectoral GDP performance, the service sector recorded the highest growth of 13.4% in the review quarter, while agriculture followed with a 9.2% growth. On the flip side, the industrial sector contracted by 2% as a result of the significant contraction of the mining sub-sector of the economy.
In contrast to the growth recorded in Nigeria in the same period, the main drivers for the growth were trade, Information and Communication (Telecommunication); other drivers include Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions); Manufacturing (Food, Beverage & Tobacco); Agriculture (Crop Production); and Transportation and Storage (Road Transport), accounting for positive GDP growth.
What you should know
Ghana is the 8th largest economy in Africa according to data from the World Bank, estimated at $68.53 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the GDP of a country is the total monetary or market value of goods and services produced within an economy in a particular period.
