According to preliminary statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service, the development of Ghana's economy slowed in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
A slight development in the services and agricultural sectors helped the economy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expand by 3.3 percent.
In actuality, this is the lowest growth rate after COVID-19 that has been seen. The growth rate for the same time period in 2021 was 3.6 percent.
The Non-Oil GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2022 was 3.7 percent, which is lower than the 5.3 percent growth rate for the same time in 2021.
Agriculture topped the growth rate, increasing by 5.6 percent, according to Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Anim. Services followed, growing at a rate of 3.7 percent, while industry had a GDP of 1.3 percent.
In the agricultural sector, the Fishing sector saw the highest growth rate of 26.1%, followed by Livestock (5.5%) and Crops (5.2%).
However, forestry and logging had a 0.5 percent decline.
Information & Communication, which increased by 26.6 percent, led the expansion within the Services sector. Following suit were Trade, Repair of Vehicles, Household Goods (2.3%), Hotel and Restaurants (5.3%), Finance & Insurance (4.2%), Other Personal Service Activities (3.1%), and Transport and Storage (6.4%).
Professional, Administrative & Support (-12.8%), Public Administration & Defense (-9.8%), Social Security (-9.8%), Real Estate (-2.6%), Education (-2.0%), and Health & Social Work (-2.0%) were the subsectors that saw contraction.
The industrial sectors that had the greatest growth were Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management & Remediation Activities (25.4%) and Electricity (15.9%). Manufacturing increased by 2.1%.
The only industry to experience a 2.0 percent decline was construction. Due to this year's short budget, there have been few expenditures made in infrastructure.
The GDP projection for the first quarter of 2022 was predicted to be GH139.39 billion at current prices in purchaser's value[1], up from GH115.69 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Sectoral shares of GDP
According to the GSS, with a share of 45 percent of GDP at basic prices in the first quarter of 2022, the services sector will continue to be the largest in Ghana.
Industry and agriculture each contributed 32% of the GDP.