Ghana has marked some recent successes, such as planting for food and jobs and free secondary education. But President Akuffo-Addo also faces challenges fulfilling some of his election pledges—including setting up a factory in each of the nation’s 216 districts, one dam for every village and providing free high school education.
Real GDP growth was 6.5% in 2019 in the country, up from 6.3% in 2018. The services sector contributed most to economic growth in 2019 (2.8 percentage points), followed by industry (2.4 percentage points) and agriculture (1.3 percentage points). Growth in non-oil activities slowed to 5.8% from 6.5% in 2018. The robust services sector growth (7.6%) was driven by strong expansions in Real Estate (up 19.9%) and information and communication technology (ICT) (up 46.5%) activities, while growth in industry was mainly supported by mining and quarrying. Agriculture grew by 4.6%, supported by favorable weather conditions and the Government’s flagship program Planting for Food and Jobs.
The headline fiscal deficit was 4.7% of GDP in 2019, while the overall fiscal deficit, including financial and energy sector costs, reached 7% of GDP, the same level as in 2018. Total revenues at 14.8% of GDP were 0.3% of GDP higher in 2019 than in 2018. The government’s commitment to close the financing gap for the comprehensive Energy Sector Recovery Program (ESRP), which began in May 2019, added an estimated 1% of GDP to the budget. Furthermore, the financial sector clean-up, which started in 2018 and progressed into 2019 with a broader mandate to resolve insolvent banks and reform Special Deposit-taking Institutions, resulted in an additional cost of 1.3% of GDP to the fiscal budget.
