Ghana’s economy recorded a robust 7.2% year-on-year growth in the third quarter of 2024, an improvement from the 7% growth achieved in the second quarter, according to data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
This strong performance underscores the nation’s economic resilience and recovery trajectory, buoyed by key growth-driving sectors.
Seasonally adjusted figures indicate that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 1.7% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.
This marks a slight improvement of 0.1 percentage points over the previous quarter’s growth rate of 1.6%, reflecting steady economic momentum.
The impressive GDP growth was largely driven by the Mining and Quarrying, Information and Communication, Crops, Construction, and Manufacturing sectors.
Conversely, some sub-sectors, including Fishing, Water and Sewerage, and Other Personal Service Activities, contracted during the period.
The year-on-year GDP growth rate, including oil and gas, stood at 7.2% in the third quarter, a significant increase from the 2.2% recorded in the same quarter of 2023.
Excluding oil and gas, the non-oil GDP growth rate was even higher at 7.7%, compared to 2.4% in the corresponding period last year.
The Services sector maintained its position as the largest contributor to the economy, accounting for 42.9% of GDP at basic prices in the third quarter.
It was followed by the Industry sector, which contributed 32.6%, and the Agriculture sector, which accounted for 24.5%.
The Industry sector emerged as the fastest-growing sector in the third quarter, recording a year-on-year growth of 10.4%. The Services sector followed with a growth rate of 6.4%, while the Agriculture sector posted a growth rate of 3.2%.
Seasonally adjusted figures further highlight Industry’s dominance, with a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 2.5%, compared to 1.5% for Services and 0.7% for Agriculture.
In terms of contributions to the overall GDP growth, the Industry sector made the largest impact with 3.4 percentage points, followed by Services with 2.8 percentage points, and Agriculture with 0.6 percentage points.
Within Agriculture, the Crops sub-sector showed the strongest performance, expanding by 5.9% year-on-year and 1.3% quarter-on-quarter.
On the other hand, the Fishing sub-sector contracted sharply, with a year-on-year decline of 21.7% and a quarter-on-quarter drop of 6.5%.
The GDP estimate for the third quarter of 2024, including oil, reveals that the Services sector contributed GH₵106,280 million, while Industry added GH₵80,844 million, and Agriculture contributed GH₵60,696 million.
This strong economic performance in the third quarter highlights Ghana’s progress in leveraging its industrial and service sectors to drive growth.
However, the contractions in certain sub-sectors like Fishing and Water and Sewerage signal the need for targeted interventions to ensure balanced and inclusive development across all sectors of the economy.
