GHANA: Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) released provisional 2Q23 figures indicating that the economy grew by 3.2 percent y/y, slightly slower than the growth seen in 1Q23 of 3.3 percent y/y (the 1Q23 number was revised from the initially published 4.2 percent) and 5.2 percent seen in 2Q22.
The agricultural sector is fairing better than it did a year ago, with growth of 6.0 percent y/y in 2Q23, compared to 4.0 percent in 2Q22. In the agricultural sector, growth was recorded across all sub-sectors except forestry and logging which contracted 4.2 percent y/y (1Q23: 1.5 percent). Meanwhile, there have been three consecutive quarters where we have seen a contraction in the industry sector.
However, the contraction was smaller in 2Q23 at 1.9 percent y/y compared to that of the previous quarter at 2.6 percent. Key sub-sectors like construction (-11.7 percent y/y) and manufacturing (-0.5 percent) dragged growth in the quarter. Non-oil GDP saw growth of 3.2 percent y/y from 4.4 percent in the first quarter. The services sector registered growth rates of 6.3 percent for both quarters in the first half of 2023. Under services, notably, the information and communication sub-sector grew 26.4 percent, while financial and insurance activities recorded a mere 0.4 percent growth following two quarters of high single-digit growth. The GSS further released rebased quarterly GDP estimates for 1Q13 to 4Q21, and revised estimates for 1Q22 to 1Q23.
Overall, we note that the Finance Ministry in July, almost halved its forecast for growth this year to 1.5 percent due to a broad slowdown in major sectors of the economy. Ghanaian authorities expect growth to rebound to 2.8 percent next year and 4.7 percent in 2025.
