Ghana’s economy grew at a rate of 0.4% in 2020, beating slightly most institutions and analysts’ forecasts, provisional figures from the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed.

Without oil, the economy however grew at a rate of 1.3%.

Ghana was however among few countries on the African continent that recorded positive growth rates in 2020 in a year that covid-19 impacted negatively on global economies.

There were many expectations that the economy will grow at a rate of at least 1.0% of Gross Domestic Product last year.

According to the figures, the agriculture sector dove the annual GDP with a growth rate of 7.4%.

While the Services sector recorded a positive growth rate of 1.5%, Industry recorded -3.6%.

For the Agriculture sector, the Fishing sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate of 14.4 % while the Forestry and Logging sub-sector recorded the lowest with a contraction -9.2%.

The Information & Communication sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year GDP growth rate of 22.5% in the Services sector, while the Hotel & Restaurants Activities sub-sector recorded the lowest with a contraction of 34.8%.

With regard to Industry, the Electricity sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year annual GDP growth rate of 7.9% for 2020, while the Mining & Quarrying sub-sector recorded the lowest with a contraction of 11.0%.

For the size of the economy, the services sector controlled 44.6% of the economy, whilst industry and agriculture constituted 36.3% and 19.1% respectively.

The size of the economy was also estimated at GH₵404.87 billion.