Ghana's economy grows by 7.2 per cent in 2024 Q3
Ghana’s economy grew by 7.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, marking a significant recovery compared to the 2.2 per cent growth recorded during the same period in 2023, according to data released today by the Ghana Statistical Service.
The growth is the strongest since pre-pandemic levels, with the last comparable performance being a 9.1 per cent expansion in the second quarter of 2019.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 1.7 per cent in Q3 2024 compared to the second quarter, slightly higher than the 1.6 per cent recorded in Q2 2024.
Key sectors underpinning this impressive growth included Mining and Quarrying, Information and Communication, Crops, Construction and Manufacturing. These industries collectively drove the economy forward, reflecting a diverse range of contributions to the nation’s economic output.
However, not all sectors performed positively. Fishing, Water and Sewerage, and Other Personal Service Activities were among the subsectors that contracted during the period, indicating lingering challenges in these areas.
Breakdown of growth rates and sectoral contributions
The provisional quarterly real GDP growth rate, inclusive of oil and gas, stood at 7.2 per cent year-on-year. Excluding oil and gas, non-oil GDP growth was even higher at 7.7 per cent, up from 2.4 per cent in the corresponding period of 2023.
Among the main contributors to this impressive performance were the Mining and Quarrying, Information and Communication, Crops, Construction, and Manufacturing sectors.
However, challenges persisted in some subsectors, notably Fishing, Water and Sewerage, and Other Personal Service Activities, which recorded contractions.
The Services sector remained the largest contributor to the economy, accounting for 42.9 per cent of GDP at basic prices, followed by Industry at 32.6 per cent and Agriculture at 24.5 per cent.
Real GDP growth within the Industry sector was the highest, at 10.4 per cent year-on-year, compared to 6.4 per cent in Services and 3.2 per cent in Agriculture. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Industry recorded the strongest growth at 2.5 per cent, followed by Services at 1.5 per cent and Agriculture at 0.7 per cent.
In terms of contributions to year-on-year real GDP growth, the Industry sector led with 3.4 percentage points, Services contributed 2.8 percentage points, and Agriculture added 0.6 percentage points.
Commenting on the significance of the current GDP figures, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, highlighted the importance of sustained growth over isolated spikes. He stated:
"The communication around economic indicators and how to pay back day-to-day activities should always be underscored by a sustained change in economic indicators. It would always be erroneous if we take a one-off jump or slowdown in an economic indicator to say that we want to see an immediate impact on the lives of the day-to-day activities. So this growth rate that we are seeing—its impact on day-to-day activities in terms of how earnings will go up, how employment will change, and all that—will be better felt if this 7.2 per cent is sustained over a longer period of time."
Professor Annim also emphasised the uneven employment implications of the growth, given that the leading contributors, such as Mining and Quarrying, Information and Communication, and Manufacturing, vary in their labour absorption capacity. He noted: "The mining and quarrying subsector was the major driver for the 7.2 per cent growth rate that we saw in the third quarter of 2024. The mining and quarrying subsector grew by 7.1 per cent. So for us to be thinking about the employment effect of the growth rate, the first question will be, how many people are being absorbed by the mining and quarrying subsector?"