Mining propels Ghana to beat growth estimates in fourth quarter of 2022

Ghana’s economy grew more than forecast in the last quarter of 2022, even as the nation dealt with inflation well above 40%, a debt-payment moratorium and rising interest rates.

Gross domestic product expanded 3.7% from a year earlier in the three months through December, compared with upwardly revised growth of 3.1% in the previous quarter, government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters Wednesday in the capital, Accra.

The median of four economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for growth of 2.6%. The cedi extended gains, strengthening 0.5% to 11.7565 per dollar by 11:59 a.m. in Accra, while the yield on Ghana’s $1 billion of eurobonds due 2026 fell marginally to 50.9%.

The main drivers of the economic growth were mining and quarrying, which grew 13.4% in the quarter from a year earlier, information and communications and agriculture, Annim said.

Industries Driving Ghana’s Fourth Quarter Economic Growth

Economic growth slowed to 3.1% in 2022, from a revised 5.1% a year earlier, Ghana Statistical Service data showed. That undershot a Finance Ministry estimate of 3.7% and International Monetary Fund’s 3.2%.

Ghana is working to restructure most of its public liabilities, estimated at 576 billion cedis ($49 billion) at the end of November, to cut its debt from an estimated 105% of GDP in 2022 to 55% by 2028. This will enable the country to secure a $3 billion rescue package from the IMF, even as it undertakes belt-tightening measures set to weigh on economic growth this year.

Economists in a separate Bloomberg survey predict a 2.4% expansion in GDP in the three months through March, and 2.9% in 2023.

Watch the latest edition of BizTech and Biz Headlines below: