Ghana for the fourth quarter of 2020 recorded a non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 4.5 percent.
The recorded non-oil GDP growth rate for Q4 2020 is however, 1.4 percentage points lower than the 5.9 percent non-oil GDP growth rate attained in the same period of Q4 2019.
Including oil and gas, recorded GDP growth rate for Q4 2020 is 7.8 percent as GDP in volume terms increased by 3.3 percent in Q4 2020.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the recorded GDP growth was mainly driven by the agricultural sector which recorded a growth rate of 8.2 percent in Q4 2020.
Followed by the Services sector with a growth of 4.6 percent. There was however a contraction of 0.4 percent in the Industry sector.
The Services sector, the GSS also notes, was the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy in the fourth quarter of 2020 with a share of 40 percent of GDP at basic prices.
The GDP share of Industry and Agriculture were 39 percent and 21 percent respectively.
Ghana’s GDP growth for the second and third quarters of 2020 contracted by 3.2 per cent and 1.1 percent respectively.
This resulted in Ghana recording its first recession in more than 37 years.
The contraction in the GDP growth rate fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic was due to a decline in the Industry and Services sectors with both contracting by 5.1 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.