Dr Eric Osei-Assibey
Ghana has witnessed significant economic decline over the past five years with weak real Gross Domestic Growth (GDP), Dr Eric Osei-Assibey, an economist, has stated.
Making a presentation on the theme, ‘Current state of Ghana’s economy: Impact of the ECF Programme with the IMF’ on Tuesday in Accra at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Roundtable discussion, Dr Osei-Assibey said Ghana’s industrial sector registered a -5 percent growth in the second quarter of this year.
The development can be attributed to the power crisis that hit the country some few months ago and negatively affected industry.
From a growth of 19.2 percent in the first quarter, industry enjoyed a boom, as it recorded 42.5 percent in the second quarter, continuing to 54.4 percent for the third quarter.
However, industry experienced a reduction in growth for the fourth quarter, registering 50.7 percent.
In the first quarter of 2012, it slumped to 28.7 percent, further cascading to 2.3 percent in the last quarter.
For 2013, the growth of the sector rebounded to 8.2 percent at the end of the first quarter and continued to 16.6 percent in the second. However, the sector’s growth experienced a free-fall in the third quarter, registering 1.7 percent and then to 0.5 percent in the last quarter. By the end of the first quarter of 2014, it dropped to -1.8 percent in the first quarter, rose to 4.6 percent in the third quarter and fell hugely to -0.1 percent in the last quarter.
2015 saw some slight ups and downs with the last quarter recording 6 percent. For the first quarter of this year, growth of industry was 1.4 percent and from that level it plummeted to –5 percent in the second quarter, he indicated.
Dr Osei-Assibey said with overall growth of the country for the second quarter of this year recording 2.5 percent, agriculture recorded 4.1 percent, as services recorded a 6 percent growth.
Mining and quarrying (including oil and gas) registered -29 percent growth, while manufacturing registered 9 percent growth. Electricity recorded 11.7 percent growth, water and sewerage (-6 percent) and construction (5.1 percent), he added.
He therefore called on the relevant authorities in the country to put their act together to reverse the trend which is a source of concern for many people.
By Samuel Boadi