Ghana’s economy recorded a robust growth of 4.2% year-on-year in the first three months of 2023, according to the latest data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
This was higher than the 3.2% growth registered in the last quarter of 2022 and marked the fastest pace of economic expansion for the country since the second quarter of 2022.
The GSS attributed this impressive performance to the services and agriculture sectors, which grew by 10.1% and 4.8% respectively in the first quarter of 2023.
The services sector was boosted by strong growth in public administration, defence and social security; health and social work; education; and information and communication sub-sectors. The agriculture sector benefited from increased cocoa production.
However, the industry sector contracted by 3.2% in the same period, mainly due to declines in mining and quarrying; construction; wholesale and retail trade; fishing; manufacturing; and hotels and restaurants sub-sectors.
The oil and gas sector, one of Ghana’s major sources of foreign exchange, also shrank by 16% in the first quarter of 2023.
The GSS also reported that the seasonally-adjusted real GDP increased by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022. The non-oil GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2023 was 5.5%, compared to 3.7% in the same period in 2022.
