The World Bank has revised Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate projection for 2024 to 4.0% from the initial 4.8% reported by the October 2024 Africa Pulse Report.

This is however same as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast of 4.0%.

According to its January 2025 Global Economic Prospects, the country’s economy is expected to expand by 4.2% and 4.8% in 2025 and 2026 respectively.

This is however lower than the pre Covid-19 pandemic average of 5%.

The World Bank said the risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside.

Further downside risks include a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown in China; escalating global geopolitical tensions, especially an intensification of the conflict in the Middle East; and worsening political instability and an escalation of violent conflicts in the region, especially in East Africa and the Sahel.

Furthermore, it said more persistent inflation than expected could keep global interest rates elevated, compounding the challenges confronting highly indebted countries, while greater frequency and intensity of adverse weather events could exacerbate poverty in many countries across SSA.

Meanwhile, the World Bank said growth in Sub-Saharan Africa picked up from 2.9% in 2023 to an estimated 3.2% in 2024.

This was 0.3 percentage points lower than projected in June 2024, reflecting the ongoing violent conflict in Sudan as well as various country-specific challenges that weighed on the region’s economic recovery last year.