Provisional GDP estimates for 2019 showed a growth rate of 6.5 per cent compared to 6.3 per cent in 2018, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.

According to the GSS, the services sector recorded the highest growth rate of 7.6 per cent, followed by Industry (6.4%) and Agriculture (4.6%) sectors.

Services remain the largest sector. Its share of GDP increased from 46.3 per cent in 2018 to 47.2 per cent in 2019. The sector's GDP growth rate increased from 2.7 per cent in 2018 to 7.6 per cent in 2019 and contributed 2.8 percentage points (43.4%) to the 2019 annual growth rate of 6.5%.

Two of the sub-sectors in this sector contributed more than 5 per cent to the 2019 annual growth rates. These are the Information and Communication with a growth rate of 46.5% and a contribution of 1.0 percentage points (15.7%) to annual growth and the Trade; Repair Of Vehicles, Household Goods sub-sector (3.7%) which contributed 0.4 percentage point to annual GDP growth.

The Industry sector contributed 2.4 percentage points (37.5%) to 2019 annual GDP growth rate, though its share of GDP at basic prices increased by 0.2% from 34.0% in 2018 to 34.2% in 2019.

Main Driver

The main driver of 2019 GDP growth was the Mining and Quarrying subsector with a growth rate of 12.6% and contribution to the growth of 2.0 percentage points (31.2%). There were contraction in the Construction (-4.4%) and Water and Sewerage, Waste Management & Remediation Activities (-4.4%).

The Agriculture sector grew by 4.6 per cent in 2019 compared to a growth rate of 4.8 per cent in 2018. Its share of GDP declined from 19.7 per cent in 2018 to 18.5 per cent in 2019.

The Crops subsector is the third-largest activity in Ghana with a share of 13.8 per cent of GDP and contributed 0.7 percentage points to 2019 annual GDP growth. The Forestry and logging sub-sector contracted (-1.7%) having recorded 2.4% in 2018.

The Non-Oil annual GDP growth rate decreased from 6.5 per cent in 2018 to 5.8 per cent in 2019. The slowdown in growth rate could be attributed to a 10.4 per cent growth rate in Mining and Quarrying activities (excluding Oil and Gas) in 2019 compared to 48.6% in 2018.

Contractions in the Forestry & logging, Water & Sewerage and Construction sub-sectors also contributed to the slowdown in the non-oil GDP growth in 2019.