Ghana’s economy grew 4.9% in the first quarter of 2020. This was driven mainly by the services sector, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said on Wednesday.
The services sector recorded the highest growth of 9.5%; the agriculture sector expanded by 2.8% and industry by 1.5%.
The Services sector contributed 3.6 percentage points (73.1%) to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 4.9% in the first quarter.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician, announced the figures at a news briefing in Tamale on Wednesday.
Professor Annim said the main subsectors driving GDP growth in January to March 2020 GDP were information and communication, manufacturing, education and public administration and defence, and social security.
Information and communication subsector expanded from 67.6% in quarter one of 2019 to 77.4% in the first quarter of 2020. It contributed 42.7% of total GDP growth.
The manufacturing sub-sector recorded growth of 5.0% in the first quarter of 2020, down from 5.6% in same period of 2019. It contributed 12.2% to the overall GDP growth.
The public administration and defence, social security subsector expanded by 13.6% in quarter one of 2020 from 9.0% in quarter one of 2019.
Negative contributors to the first-quarter GDP growth came from activities of the trade, repair of vehicle, household goods, construction, forestry and logging and professional, administrative and support subsectors.
The construction subsector of the economy contracted by 6.9% during the period and its contribution to GDP growth fell by 10.6%.
The GDP growth rate without oil and gas (non-oil GDP) for the first quarter of 2020 was 4.9%, against the same period in 2019 which registered growth of 6.0%.
