Business News of Thursday, 20 June 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Ghana’s economy expands 6.7 per cent in first quarter of 2019

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician

Ghana’s economy grew 6.7 per cent year-on-year in the first three months of 2019 compared to 5.4 per cent in the same period last year, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday.

The quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted growth rate was 1.6 per cent compared to 1.7 per cent for the last three months of 2018, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician said at a News Briefing.

Non-oil growth for the first quarter stood at 6.0 per cent year-on-year compared to 4.2 last year.

For the first quarter of 2019, the Services sector expanded 7.2 per cent year-on-year with the information and communication sub-sector recording the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 37.0 per cent.

On the other hand, the Finance and Insurance sub-sector recorded the lowest growth of 2.1 per cent, Prof. Annim said.

The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for Agriculture is 2.2 per cent for the first quarter of 2019.

The livestock sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate of 5.5 per cent, while the Forestry and logging sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction of 5.8 per cent.

The year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate for the Industry sector is 8.4 per cent for the first quarter of 2019.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year quarterly GDP growth rate of 20.9 per cent for the period, while the construction sub-sector recorded the lowest, with a contraction of 8.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Producer Price Inflation fell slightly to 6.7 per cent in May from 7.1 per cent in April.

The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 15.1 per cent, followed by the manufacturing sub-sector with 6.2 per cent.

The utility sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation of 1.1 per cent.