GDP growth rate estimated at 4.1%

The country’s economy grew by 4.1 percent last year, compared to the 7.3 percent growth rate recorded in 2008, the revised real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate for 2009 has revealed.

This represents a 0.6 percentage change less than the previous estimate.

Figures released from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) disclosed that the revised real GDP estimate for 2009 is GH¢827.72 million, with the 2008 valued at GH¢794.82 million.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of final goods and services produced in the country during a given period. The data indicates overall performance of the economy and its main drivers.

The revision is based on 80 percent of the data used for computation of the estimated GDP, Bernice Serwah Ofofu-Baadu, Head of National Accounts & Economic Indicators at the GSS explained to B&FT in an interview in Accra.

She explained that based on the international standard a country need 19 months to successfully complete a comprehensive final estimate for a particular year in an economy. The country’s 2009 final GDP estimates would be ready in April 2011.

“It is only the final estimates that are not subject to further changes. This release presents the final GDP estimates for 2008 and the revised estimates of GDP for 2009.”

The agriculture sector recorded the highest growth of 6.1 percent, followed by Services sector 5.9 percent and Industry 1.6 percent.

The highest contributor to the overall growth rate is the finance sub-sector with 8.7 percent. This is followed by crops and livestock, and mining and quarrying subsectors, both growing by 8.2 percent.

The sub-sectors that contributed the least to overall growth rates are Fishing, Construction and Manufacturing sub-sectors - which declined by 2.3, 1.7 and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Performance of the sectors

The Agriculture sector continues to lead the economy with a 34.5 percent share of total GDP. This sector recorded a growth rate of 5.1 percent, driven by the crops and livestock sub-sector which was 8.2 percent.

Cocoa and marketing sub-sector grew by 6.2 percent. Fishing is the sub-sector in agriculture which declined, showing a ‐2.3 percent change in real GDP compared to 10.0 percent in 2008.

Industry
The overall growth of the sector was 1.6 percent and the sector contributed 24.9 percent to the total GDP. The mining sub-sector is estimated to have grown by 8.2 percent, with gold growing by 9.8 percent while all the other major minerals (bauxite, diamond and manganese) recorded negative growths in output.

Manufacturing declined by 1.3 percent as compared to 4.5 percent in 2008. Production and distribution of electricity and water grew by 7.5 percent. While production of electricity from hydro-generation increased by 11.1 percent, production from thermal generation fell by 2.9 percent. Also, water production increased by 7.7 percent.

However, construction activities by both the public and private sectors declined by 1.7 percent. This was as a result of the 5 percent decline in total production of cement during 2009.

Services
The sector recorded a growth rate of 5.9 percent and a 32.3 percent share of total GDP. The finance and insurance sub-sector recorded the highest growth rate of 8.7 percent in the Services sector.

This was followed by the Transport and communication sub-sector with 7.7 percent growth, contributing 5.5 percent to GDP. On the other hand, wholesale, retail trade and hotels and restaurant activities slowed down - recording only 2.8 percent growth, the lowest in the Services sector. Net indirect taxes also fell in real terms, recording ‐2.3 percent and reflecting the slackening pace of taxable activities.