An economist says the reopening of the Kotoka International Airport to international flights could boost the country’s economy beyond the projected 0.9% by government to about 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product for this year.

Professor Peter Quartey said the opening of the airport will stimulate aggregate demand and impact significantly on the hospitality sub-sector including hotels and conferences.

“Although in the budget, 0.9% GDP growth was projected, I’m optimistic that we are likely to get up to about 1.5% GDP growth given the scenario we’ve outlined”, the Director of Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research said.

The country revised its growth rate from 6.8% to 0.9% this year, because of the significant impact of Covid-19 on the economy despite recording a 4.9% growth rate in the first quarter of this year.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected economic activities, with sub-sectors such as the hospitality, personal service activities and education as some of the hardest hit.

Closure of the airport and land boarders also significantly affected aggregate demand and supply within the economy as a whole.

Hotels, conferences, travel and tours were brought to virtually a halt for about four months, whilst imports and some amount of exports from non-traditional exports reduced significantly due to low demand.

Some companies also downsized when pandemic began with others running shift systems because of low revenue but rising expenditure.

But Prof Quartey is optimistic economic activities will bounce back between now and the rest of the year but wants people to observe Covid-19 safety protocols.

“In the first place, it will bring revenue, then some level of imports and exports is done through air cargo and some are through the airports.

"So you will find out that we have Ghana Revenue Authority even stationed at the airport; the essence is that they collect revenue. So that is likely to bring in revenue for the country.

“Then of course, the hospitality industry-the hotels etc-when foreigners come,conferences are held, others come and stay for tourism and many other things, certainly they will be spending money.

"The hotels and other activities generate revenue, people get employed and of course they also pay tax as well. These are all means by which income is generated, tax revenue is generated, and then the airport itself gets revenue to run its operations.”

So overall, an increase in growth rate could influence positively on sales of businesses, among others, going forward.

Ghana’s economy grew by 4.9% in quarter one of 2020, provisional figures from the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed. This is compared to a growth rate of 6% of Gross Domestic Product during the same period in 2019.

According to the GSS, the services sector recorded the highest growth rate of 9.5% followed by the agriculture sector, which expanded by 2.8% and the industry sector by 1.5%.

The main sub-sectors driving GDP growth in January to March 2020 GDP were information and communication, manufacturing, education and public administration and defence, social security.