ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s economic growth slowed slightly to 3.2% year-on-year in the second quarter compared with a downwardly revised 3.3% growth rate in the first quarter, the country’s statistics agency said on Wednesday.
The gold-, oil- and cocoa-producing nation has been battling its worst economic crisis in a generation brought on by spiralling public debt.
It sealed a $3 billion, three-year loan programme with the International Monetary Fund in May.
The government has forecast economic growth will slow to 1.5% this year from 3.1% in 2022. First-quarter growth was revised down to 3.3% from a previous estimate of 4.2%, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday.
Growth in the second quarter was driven by the mining, agriculture, health, transport, and information technology sectors.
Agriculture grew by 6.0% and the services sector 6.3%, while industry contracted 1.9%. The construction sub-sector contracted by 11.7%, the biggest drop in five years.
The statistics agency also said producer inflation slowed to 28.3% in annual terms in August, down from a revised 32.9% in July.
(Reporting by Christian Akorlie and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Alexander Winning and Tomasz Janowski)
