Business News of Tuesday, 17 August 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-08-17Ghana’s economy projected to have expanded by 8.9% in Q2 of 2021
File photo of a busy street in Accra-Ghana
• Ghana's economy is projected to have expanded by 8.9% in Q2 2021
• The expansion according to Deloitte Ghana is attributed to international trade and demand for export commodities
• The GSS is however yet to formally release growth rate data for 2021
Ghana's economy is projected to have expanded by 8.9% in
Read full articlethe second quarter of 2021, according to a Joy Business report attributed to accounting and auditing firm, Deloitte Ghana.
Though the Ghana Statistical Service is yet to formally release growth rate data for the period, the firm explains that the projection expansion can be attributed to international trade as economies have gradually begun to ease coronavirus induced restrictions which will, in turn, boost demand for commodity exports for Ghana on the international market.
“This, coupled with the general increase in economic activity in 2021 is expected to help achieve the targeted growth. However, a critical success factor is how well we handle the rising COVID-19 cases. A strict enforcement of COVID protocols, as well as an effective roll out of COVID vaccination, will sustain the economic recovery process,” the firm said.
Yaw Lartey, a Financial Advisory partner at Deloitte Ghana said “the estimated Gross Domestic Product for 2021 is about GH¢433 billion. This represents a growth of 8.9% compared to GDP as of the same period 2020.”
He continued, “The key driver of the growth was the agriculture sector which grew by about 18%, largely on account of growth in the Crop subsector. We believe that some of the programmes and activities introduced by government are beginning to yield results, particularly those that support the Crop sub sector”.
“Also, we saw a significant growth in the services sector, particularly in the Hotels and Restaurants sub-sector. As we noticed, the COVID-19 adversely impacted on this sector, but we see some recovering in the economy – we see some activities going on in the Hotels and Restaurant sub-sector. That contraction we witnessed last year of about 44% contraction, we’ve seen a growth this year and that is driving the Services sector to grow at about 9%”, Lartey added.
Despite the adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the Ghanaian economy and its associated growth sectors, there has been an uptick in economic activity in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same period on 2020 where there was less activity as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
