Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
An economic analyst is forecasting increase in economic activities in the third quarter of this year.
However, the economy will slow down very significantly in the second quarter of this year end 30 June 2020.
According to Courage Martey, the shut down of the country’s boarders coupled with the three-week partial lockdown imposed by the government due to COVID-19 have culminated in slowdown f economic activities in April, May and June 2020.
Ghana’s economy grew at a rate of 4.9% of Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2020, according to figures from the Ghana Statistical Service.
This is considered a strong growth by many economists and business analysts despite 1.1% decline from the 6% recorded the same period last year.
The growth was driven by the services sector with a phenomenal 9.5% growth rate
Mr. Martey who also doubles as a Senior Economic Analyst with Databank Research told Class Business the economy will pick up from July following the easing of restrictions by government in the second quarter.
“We may start to see some improvement in quarter three because of the sudden easing restrictions, because our harvest season begins in quarter three and general economic activities will pick up in the second half of the year. Then added to the fact that when elections related spending will add certain momentum to aggregate demand then we may see some slight pick in the second half of the year”, said Mr. Martey also said the economy will have increased furthermore in Q1 if not because of the shrinkage in trade volumes between Ghana and its trading Partners over the period.
According to him, although the Services sector recorded the highest growth rate of 9.5%, trade contracted by over 14% owing to the effects of Covid-19 on Ghana’s trading partners like China.
