Economy valued at GHC256bn after rebasing - Ghana Statistics Service

Rebased economic figures released by the Ghana Statistics Service (GSS) indicate that the country’s economy expanded by 24.6 per cent in 2017.

This means that Ghana’s economy increased to GH¢256 billion from GH¢205.9 billion recorded earlier.

The rebasing involves replacing the old base year (i.e. 2006) used for computing the constant price estimates to a more recent base year – 2013.

The GSS further disclosed that change in the base year has also been influenced by a change in the structure of the economy since 2006, adding that certain activities, which had little economic importance in 2006 have gained prominence now and may contribute more to the economy than before.

Given the current population size of 28.96 million, every Ghanaian would be entitled to GH¢8,863 as their share of the national cake with respect of the new figure.

According to the GSS, the expansion recorded last year in the economy was moderately lower when contrasted with earlier years.

This was because in 2013, the economy grew by 32.4 percent.

In 2014, it increased to 37.1 percent after which it slowed down to 31.7 percent in 2015, and further to 28.5 percent in 2016.

Looking at the economic expansion sectorally, the services sector grew by 3.3 percent in 2017, while industry grew by 15.7 per cent and agriculture by 6.1 percent.

Regarding contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), the agriculture sector currently contributes 21.2 percent while industry and the services sectors registered 33.2 and 45.6 percent in that order.

The GSS pointed out that before the rebasing exercise, the afore-mentioned sectors’ contribution to the economy stood at 18.3 percent, 25.5 percent and 56.2 percent respectively.

Government stated that the rebasing is expected to expand the country’s economy by some 20 percent and help reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio.