Ghana unadjusted GDP growth stood at 3.6 pct in Q3 2015

Ghana's unadjusted gross domestic product (GDP) growth stood at 3.6 percent year-on-year including oil in the third quarter of 2015, the statistics office said on Wednesday.

The figure compares to a revised 12.2 percent for the third quarter of last year, and the sharp difference is mainly due to base effect, or technical factors, rather than to a drop in GDP itself, said deputy government statistician Baah Wadieh.

Ghana's GDP growth has slowed sharply in the last two years due to lower commodity prices and an economic crisis that has forced the country to sign a three-year aid deal with the International Monetary Fund. It is also grappling with a three-year electricity crisis that has hurt industry.

"There has been a negative growth in mining and quarrying due to the fall in world gold prices leading to some mines closing their operations," Wadieh told a news conference, adding that the hotel and restaurants sector also registered declines.

The statistical service has projected that the economy will grow at 4.1 percent in 2015, slightly above the government's initial target of 3.9 percent.

Ghana's producer price inflation rose slightly to 3.0 percent in November from a revised 2.9 percent in October, Wadieh said.