2023-06-22 17:45:00
(Agence Ecofin) – The acceleration of the growth rate of the Ghanaian economy is mainly due to the good performance of the services sector and agriculture. The IMF’s recent approval of a $3 billion aid package should help boost growth in the coming quarters.
Ghana recorded economic growth of 4.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to data released Wednesday (June 21) by the National Statistics Service (SSG).
This growth rate is the highest since the second quarter of 2022, the same source said.
Between January 1 and March 31 of the current year, the service sector grew by 10.1% in the first quarter once morest 7.6% in the previous three months.
Agriculture grew by 4.8%, compared to 3.6% in the fourth quarter of last year, thanks in particular to the increase in cocoa production. The industry contracted 3.2%, following a 1% contraction in the previous quarter.
The oil and gas sector, one of the country’s main foreign currency earners, meanwhile contracted by 16% in the first three months of 2023.
The approval by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a $3 billion program for Ghana last May, with an immediate disbursement of $600 million, should help sustain growth in the coming quarters. Especially since it will restore investor confidence in the economy and send a positive message to the trading partners and creditors of this West African country.
Accra, which last December suspended repayment of most of its external debt, hopes to sign an agreement on the restructuring of its external debt with its official creditors by July 2023, and another separate agreement “ around the same time with its private creditors, according to the Ministry of Finance.
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