Ghana’s real Gross Domestic Product growth has been revised to 1.96% for this year, Fitch Solutions, research arm of ratings agency Fitch, has said.

This will place it third among 20 Sub Saharan Africa economies, tracked by the research firm.

Earlier, it had projected a GDP of about 1.90% in 2020.

Covid-19 has slowed the GDP of most African countries that are expected to register negative growth rates this year.

13 out of the 20 Sub-Saharan African countries tracked by Fitch Solutions will record negative growth rates in 2020.

The Ivory Coast is expected to record the highest GDP of 2.68% in SSA, followed by Uganda with an expected growth rate of 2.13%.

Other African economies that will register positive growth rates are Tanzania (1.69%), Ethiopia (1.37%), Kenya (1.13%) and Mozambique (0.73%).

Africa’s largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa will all record negative growth rates for this year. Their economies will contract heavily to register -6.01% and -7.04% respectively.

Fitch Solutions attributed Ghana’s expected growth rate to rebound in economic activities in the last quarter of the year, whereby there are anticipated substantial imports and exports.

Kotoka International Airport was reopened to international flights and arrivals about a week ago, and that is expected to stimulate economic activities and boost revenue going forward. 

Fitch Solutions also said the country will enjoy boom from high gold prices although crude oil prices have gone below its forecast price.

Quarter 1 GDP

The nation registered a growth rate of 4.9% in the first quarter of this year, at a time, the coronavirus pandemic has reached an alarming rate in Europe, Asia and the United State of America.

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 & communication, manufacturing, education and public administration & defence, social security.