The latest data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday has shown that the country’s economy at the end of 2019 grew at a rate of 6.5 percent compared to 6.3 percent in 2018.

The provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was largely driven by the services sector, which recorded the highest growth rate of 7.6 percent, followed by Industry sector at 6.4 percent and Agriculture sector at 4.6 percent.

The Gross Domestic Product is the estimate of the total value of final goods and services produced in the country over a given period.

Real GDP estimate for the fourth quarter of 2019 was GHc 42,600.0 million compared to GHc 39,473.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. Further to this, the real non-oil GDP for the fourth quarter of 2019 was GHc 39,021.3 million compared to GHc 36,093.9 million in the same period of 2018.

However, the GDP estimate at current prices in purchaser’s value for the fourth quarter of 2019 was GHc 94,766.0 million compared to GHc 80,843.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. The non-oil GDP (GDP without Oil and Gas) estimate at current prices for the fourth quarter of 2019 was GHc 90,234.1 million compared to GHc 77,981.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Services remain the largest sector, as its share of GDP increased from 46.3 percent in 2018 to 47.2 percent in 2019. The sector’s GDP growth rate increased from 2.7 percent in 2018 to 7.6 percent in 2019 and contributed 2.8 percentage points 43.4 percent to the 2019 annual growth rate of 6.5 percent.

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

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

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

The Agriculture sector grow by 4.6 percent in 2019 compared to a growth rate of 4.8 percent in 2018. Its share of GDP declined from 19.7 percent in 2018 to 18.5 percent in 2019. Crops is the third largest activity in Ghana with a share of 13.8 percent of GDP and contributed 0.7 percentage points to 2019 annual GDP growth. The Forestry and logging sub-sector contracted (-1.7 percent) having recorded 2.4 percent in 2018

The Non-Oil annual GDP growth rate decreased from 6.5 percent in 2018 to 5.8 percent in 2019.

The slowdown in growth rate in growth rate could be attributed to a 10.4 percent growth rate in Mining and Quarrying activities (excluding Oil and Gas) in 2019 compared to 48.6 percent in 2018. Contractions in the Forestry and logging, Water and Sewerage and Construction sub-sectors also contributed to the slowdown in the non-oil GDP growth in 2019.