Oil sector high performance fires Ghana's growth to 8.5 pct in 2017

ACCRA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- With a provisional estimated value of 39.17 Billion Ghana cedis (8.84 billion U.S. Dollars), Ghana's economy realized a high provisional growth rate of 8.5 percent year-on-year in 2017, relative to the 3.7 percent revised year-on-year growth rate recorded in 2016, according to figures released here on Wednesday by the Ghana Statistical Service.

This growth, according to Baah Wadieh, Acting Government Statistician, was due to the high performance of Industry sector propelled by oil production.

This constitutes the highest growth rate in five years after the 14.4 percent growth in 2011 and 9.3 percent growth in 2012.

The services sector which had been the highest performer over the past years recorded a growth rate of 4.3 percent with a 52.6 percent share in GDP while the agriculture sector with 18.3 percent share in the economy recorded a growth rate of 8.4 percent.

"This high growth rate was driven mainly by oil and gas which drove Industry with 25.5 percent share in the economy to record the highest growth rate of 16.7 percent year-on-year during the year under review," Wadieh said.

The turret bearing challenges experienced by the Jubilee field production vessel FPSO Kwame Nkrumah leading to long periods of shutdown and periods of low production were part of the factors slowing growth in 2016. However in 2017, the Jubilee field saw a relatively better performance while oil from the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) as well as the Off Cape Three Points (OCTP) fields coming on stream.

"Oil alone grew by 80.4 percent while the entire Mining and Quarrying sector grew at 46.7 percent. Other areas that contributed were Health and Social work, which also grew by 14.4 percent; Information and Communication which also grew by 13.2 percent; fishing also grew by 11.7 percent; Education, 9.9 percent; then crops 9.4 percent; and Cocoa out of crops grew by 17.3 percent.

"We also recorded some growth in water and sewerage which was 6.8 percent. So these complemented the growth in oil to give us this overall growth rate of 8.5 percent provisional for annual 2017," Wadieh explained.

Consumer inflation continued to dip, recording 10.4 percent in March, after a slight surge to 10.6 percent in February. Enditem