The total value of goods and services produced in the country ending June this year witnessed its biggest growth in a long while. Figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service put the year -on- year growth at 9 percent.
This is the biggest increase in GDP growth based on figures published by the Statistical Service over the last two years.
The Statistical Service attributes the expansion to some significant growth in the mining and quarrying sector, oil and gas production, which recorded 188 percent growth.
Industry recorded a growth rate of 19.3 percent, Services – 5.6 percent, while Agric had 3.4 percent.
The year-on-year inflation from the producer’s perspective for all industry was 6.6% in August 2017. This rate is 4.6 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in July 2017.
The monthly change rate for August 2017 was 1.0%.
The Mining and Quarrying sub-sector recorded the highest year-on-year producer price inflation rate of 8.3 percent, followed by the Manufacturing sub-sector with 7.5 percent. The Utilities sub-sector recorded the lowest year-on-year producer inflation rate of 1.3 percent.
With respect to the monthly changes, the Mining and Quarrying recorded the highest rate of 4.0 percent followed by the Manufacturing sub-sector with 0.5 percent. The Utilities sub-sector recorded no change.
The GDP growth rate measures how fast the economy is growing. It does this by comparing one quarter of the country’s gross domestic product to the previous quarter. GDP measures the economic output of a nation.
The GDP growth rate is driven by the four components of GDP. The main driver of GDP growth is personal consumption. This includes the critical sector of retail sales. The second component is business investment, including construction and inventory levels.
Government spending is the third driver of growth. Its largest categories are Social Security benefits, defense spending and Medicare benefits.
The government often increases spending to jumpstart the economy during a recession. Fourth is net trade. Exports add to GDP while imports subtract from it.
