The economy grew 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023 – January to March – compared to 3.0 in the same period of 2022, according to provisional estimates released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
This growth was driven by the services and agriculture sectors, which recorded growth rates of 10.1 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. Industry however contracted by 3.2 percent in the same period.
GSS also reported that the non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for the first quarter of 2023 was 5.5 percent, compared to 3.7 percent in the same period in 2022. The non-oil GDP was estimated at GH¢46.55billion in the first three months of 2023, up from GH¢44.11billion in the first quarter of 2022.
The services sector continued to be the largest, with a 47 percent share of GDP at basic prices in the first quarter. The GDP share of industry and agriculture was 32 percent and 21 percent, respectively. According to government statistics, the public administration, defence and social security; health; education; and information and communication sub-sectors were the main drivers of GDP growth for the first quarter of 2023, with growth rates of 37.6 percent, 31.6 percent, 26.0 percent and 18.9 percent respectively.
However, seven sub-sectors contracted in quarter-one of 2023. These include water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-6.4 percent); construction (-6.0 percent); wholesale and retail trade – repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-5.3 percent); fishing (-3.3 percent); mining and quarrying (-2.9 percent); manufacturing (-2.5 percent); and hotels and restaurants (-0.2 percent).
The seasonally-adjusted real GDP increased by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023 – 0.3 percentage points higher than that recorded in the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2022. The GSS also reported that the quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted real GDP, including oil, growth rate for first-quarter 2023 was 1.1 percent.
Within the industry sector, the mining and quarrying sub-sector declined from 3.2 percent in fourth-quarter 2022 to -0.7 percent in first-quarter 2023. The electricity sub-sector had growth of 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to -3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. The manufacturing sub-sector improved slightly to -0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from -2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In the services sector, information and communication sub-sector slowed to 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from 5.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. Public administration, defence and social security, health and social work activities, and education recorded growth rates of 8.3 percent, 7.3 percent, and 5.7 percent respectively in the first quarter of 2023, up from 3.7 percent, 2.2 percent and 3 percent respectively in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Trade, repair of vehicle, household goods declined to -1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. The growth in finance and insurance activities declined by 0.4 percentage points from 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 2 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Real estate grew at 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from -3.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The activities of professional, administrative and support services expanded by 1.1 percentage points from the -1.7 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023.
