August 2017 records highest purchasing output

Purchasing output in Ghana recorded its highest increase in August this year.

This was contained in the 2017 Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) launched in Accra on Tuesday, September 26.2017. After experiencing slow growth in 2015 caused by erratic power supply, the economy showed good prospects and improvement in 2016 according to the report.

The Executive Director of IHS Markit, Richard Willis said the report released shows a very high figure of about 56.1 percent indicating a strong economy for Ghana.

The improvement in 2016 was sharply accompanied by a rise in purchasing orders across sectors. This resulted in an increase in purchasing activity, supporting record inventory accumulation in August 2017.

This record is reflected in the overall performance of the Ghanaian economy as the economy advanced 6.6 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2017, following a 4.1 percent expansion in the previous period. This is the highest growth rate since the third quarter of 2014 as manufacturing recovered, oil and gas jumped and agriculture rose the most in nearly three years.



Speaking at the launch of the Ghana PMI, Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana said the PMI provides an indication of actual happenings in private sector economies and it is one the most consistent and recognized economic indicators in the world.

“The changing habits of consumers across sectors make it necessary for periodic assessments of the market environment. To this end, it is important for purchasing habits” Mr. Andani said.

“The PMI, which is a comprehensive source of data, provides indicators for governments, central banks financial institutions, investors and corporates in making critical purchasing and economic decisions.

The PMI is a series of monthly economic survey of carefully selected companies compiled by Markit Economics, a global provider of some of the world’s most influential business surveys.

The surveys form a key source of business intelligence for participants operating in the ‘real’ economy, by tracking variables such as outputs, new orders, employment and prices across key sectors.

Data are collected either an in-house panel manager at Markit or by the country local agency.

Companies are asked a standard sector specific questionnaire on a monthly basis. The PMI surveys are now available for more than 30 countries and for key regions including the Eurozone. Together these countries account for over 85% of global gross domestic product (GDP) providing a true, internationally consistent indication of the global economic trends based on fact, not opinion.

The HIS Markit PMI is supported by the Standard Bank Group, which is the parent company of Stanbic Bank with presence in 20 African countries and its sponsorship of PMI for Africa is further demonstration of the group’s commitment to the African continent, entrenching its position as the leading financial services organization in, for and across Africa.

The Ghana PMI structure included data from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, and retail trade, information and communication, consumer services, finance and insurance, real estate and business services.

The indicators are closely watched by the financial markets and help shape economic policy, by providing some of the earliest signals of economic performance.