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Ghana’s growth slows in fourth quarter of 2024 - REUTERS
Christian Akorlie
ACCRA, March 10 (Reuters) – Ghana’s economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter of last year, dragged down by a weaker performance of the industry sector, the country’s statistics agency said on Monday.
Gross domestic product grew by 3.6% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, the data showed, compared with a revised 7.5% in the third quarter.
Economic growth for the year 2024 was at 5.7%.
Growth in the fourth quarter was mostly driven by the services sector, which grew 6.3%, and agriculture, which rose 2.9%, government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim said, adding that the industry sector only expanded by 0.2%.
The West African country is emerging from its deepest economic crisis in a generation, with turmoil in the vital cocoa and gold industries.
Ghana’s consumer inflation rate slowed for the second month in a row in February, to 23.1% from 23.5% in January.
However, it remains well above Bank of Ghana’s 8% target with a margin of error of 2 percentage points either side.
President John Dramani Mahama, who returned to office in January, has promised to cut taxes and expenditure to attract investments and lift growth.
(Reporting by Christian Akorlie; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Bate Felix and Toby Chopra)
