The annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 2017 grew by 8.5 percent, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has said.
GDP is the estimate of the total value of final goods and services produced in the country over a given period.
The estimation of the GDP is done in stages, with estimates generated at each stage being dependent on available data. Estimates from each stage are progressively designated as provisional, revised and final.
In release issued Wednesday, the GSS said the 8.5percent is the provisional GDP estimates for 2017 compared to the 3.7percent recorded in 2016.
The Industry sector, according to the release recorded the highest growth rate of 16.7 percent, followed by Agriculture (8.4%) and the Services (4.3%) sectors.
The Services sector said the release remains the largest sector but with a dwindling share of GDP, decreasing from 56.8 percent in 2016 to 56.2 percent in 2017.
Also, the sector’s growth rate decreased from 5.7 percent in 2016 to 4.3 percent in 2017. Two of the subsectors in this sector recorded double digit growth rates. These are the Information and Communication (13.2%) and Health and Social Work (14.4%) sub-sectors.
The Industry sector, the highest growing sector with a GDP share of 25.5 percent, had its growth rate increasing from -0.5 percent in 2016 to 16.7 percent in 2017, said the GSS release.
Of all the industrial activities, the Mining and Quarrying subsector recorded the highest growth of 46.7 percent in 2017.
The Agriculture sector expanded from a growth rate of 3.0 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2017. Its share of GDP, however, declined from 18.7 percent in 2016 to 18.3 percent in 2017. Crops remains the largest activity with a share of 14.2 percent of GDP.
The Non-Oil annual GDP growth rate decreased from 5.0 percent in 2016 to 4.9 percent in 2017. The 2017 Non-oil GDP for Industry recorded a growth rate of 0.4 percent, compared with 4.9 percent in 2016.
Memorandum Items
| Economic Aggregate | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017* |
| Population estimate (million) | 24.66 | 25.24 | 25.82 | 26.43 | 27.04 | 27.67 | 28.31 | 28.96 |
| Average exchange rate (₵/$) | 1.43 | 1.51 | 1.81 | 1.92 | 2.94 | 3.78 | 3.92 | 4.36 |
| GDP current (million Gh₵) | 46,042 | 59,816 | 75,315 | 93,416 | 113,343 | 136,957 | 167,353 | 205,914 |
| Non-Oil GDP current (million Gh₵) | 45,865 | 56,070 | 69,666 | 85,974 | 105,550 | 131,647 | 164,099 | 195,200 |
| GDP current (million US$) | 32,186 | 39,517 | 41,656 | 48,654 | 38,612 | 36,264 | 42,685 | 47,269 |
| Per capita GDP (Gh₵) | 1,867 | 2,370 | 2,916 | 3,535 | 4,192 | 4,950 | 5,911 | 7,110 |
| Per capita GDP (US$) | 1,305 | 1,566 | 1,613 | 1,841 | 1,428 | 1,311 | 1,508 | 1,632 |
| GDP at constant 2006 prices (million Gh₵) | 24,101 | 27,486 | 30,040 | 32,237 | 33,522 | 34,808 | 36,104 | 39,175 |
| Non-Oil GDP at constant 2006 prices (million | ||||||||
| Gh₵) | 24,035 | 26,114 | 28,372 | 30,268 | 31,465 | 32,731 | 34,379 | 36,063 |
| GDP at constant 2006 prices (million US$) | 16,848 | 18,158 | 16,615 | 16,790 | 11,420 | 9,217 | 9,209 | 8,993 |
| Growth Rates | % | |||||||
| GDP at current market prices | 25.8 | 29.9 | 25.9 | 24.0 | 21.3 | 20.8 | 22.2 | 23.0 |
| GDP at constant 2006 prices | 7.9 | 14.0 | 9.3 | 7.3 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 8.5 |
| Non-Oil GDP at constant 2006 prices | 7.6 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 6.7 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.9 |
| Change in GDP deflator | 16.6 | 13.9 | 15.2 | 15.6 | 16.7 | 16.4 | 17.8 | 13.4 |
| *Provisional |
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
