The Ghanaian economy brushed aside the coronavirus pandemic to grow at a rate of 4.9% in the first quarter of 2020.
This is compared with a growth of 6.7% the same period in 2019.
The growth was largely led by the services sector, figures from the Ghana Statistical Service revealed.
The Services sector recorded the highest growth rate of 9.5% followed by the Agriculture sector with 2.8% and the Industry sector by 1.5%.
Within the Services sector, Information and communication grew by 17.1 percent in the 1st quarter of 2020 compared to 14.6 percent in the 4th quarter of 2019. The Real Estate however slowed to 3.8 percent in the 1st quarter of 2020 from 6.8 percent recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019.
There were however contractions in the sub-sectors of Trade, Repair of Vehicle, Household Goods (-1.0 percent) and the Professional, Administrative & Support (-1.5 percent) sub-sectors.
Industry was led by the electricity sector which grew by 4.1%.
The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector however slowed to 0.3% in the 1st quarter of 2020, from 1.6% recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019. Construction recorded the least growth rate -1.7% in 1st quarter of 2020 compared to -0.6% in the 4th quarter of 2019.
In the Agriculture sector, the Fishing sub-sector grew by 2.6%in the 1st quarter of 2020, compared to 2.2% in the 4th quarter of 2019.
The Livestock subsector recorded 1.3% growth rate compared to 1.7 percent growth rate recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019.
Ghana’s economy grew at a rate of 6.5% in 2019, but is forecast to grow at a rate of (2.5-2%) this year.
Source:MyNewsGh.com
