Gov't Revises Economic Growth

...to 4.1% Last Year From Earlier 4.7% Estimate

Ghana’s economy expanded 4.1 percent last year, less than previously estimated, according to revised data reported by the Ghana Statistical Service.

Growth was revised from 4.7 percent and compared with 7.3 percent in 2008, the service said in a statement given to reporters today in the capital, Accra. Expansion missed the 5.9 percent targeted in last year’s budget.

The economy is on course to achieve its growth target for this year of 6.5 percent after inflation slowed and interest rates fell, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwabena Duffuor, said by phone on July 16. The inflation rate fell below 10 percent in June for the first time since December 2007, the Statistical Service said on July 14.

“Inflation and interest rates have declined to record lows,” Duffuor said. “That is the impetus our private industries need to expand.”

The central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate to 13.5 percent from 15 percent on July 16, bringing the total reduction this year to 4.5 points.

The bank’s index that tracks the pace of economic activity grew 7.2 percent in the first half, higher than the 2.8 percent recorded in the same period last year, central bank Governor Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said at the July 16.

Agriculture expanded 6.1 percent last year, services grew 5.9 percent, and industrial output increased 1.6 percent, the statistics agency said.