Revised estimates put 2011 GDP growth at 14.4 percent

Revised estimates indicates that, Ghana's economy grew 14.4 percent in 2011 from 8 percent in 2010, the national statistics office said on Wednesday.

Previous estimates put the growth at 13.6 percent.

Ebo Duncan, Head of Economics Statistic, said the industry sector recorded the highest growth of 41.1 percent, followed by Services sector while Agriculture recorded the lowest growth of less than 1 percent.

However, he said, the services sector remained the largest sector, contributing 48.5 percent to GDP at basic prices, while the Industry sector is the second largest with 25.9 percent contribution.

Mr Duncan said crop production remained the largest activity, representing about one-fifth of total GDP (19.3 percent).

The revision also saw high growth rates recorded in mining and quarrying with 206.5 percent rise while construction grew by 20 percent.

Trade and information communication were up 17.9 and 17 percent respectively while manufacturing and other community, social and personal services grew by 13 percent each.

Activities that showed a decline in output included forestry and logging, which fell 14 percent, fishing declined by 8.7 percent and electricity grew by -0.8 percent.

Mr Duncan said final estimates for 2010 showed a growth of 8 percent over the 2009 estimates, which was 0.3 percentage points above the revised estimates for 2010.

The change was mainly due to the inclusion of crude oil from the Saltpond fields and the initial production from the Jubilee fields in December 2010.**