Denis Opudo
Ghana is one of the countries with the highest growing economy in Africa. The country’s economy is worth $45 billion and it’s the seventh biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the economy is expected to grow by 8.3% in 2018. According to World Bank, the growth is attributed to stronger credit growth and increased oil output. The growth comes after it went down by 3.5% in 2016.
Ghana is also planning to release a new economic data. The data will prove that its GDP is higher than currently estimated one. Ghana will measure again the economic output by the use of 2013 prices instead of 2006. The year 2006 was the last year to measure the Ghanaian economic output. The data will put in mind the new industries founded after 2006. This is according to Asuo Afram the head of economic statistics at the Ghana Statistical Ser.
The revised economic growth and GDP figures for 2014 to 2017 will be released on 23rd May 2018. The figures show a bigger economy than it was before the release. The country has new activities in areas of information and communication technology. There are also new discoveries in oil and gas, education and construction sectors. The ICT sector has improved by the data usage compared with the past where the voice was commonly used. Furthermore, there is also an improvement in the information on household economic activity. In the last time, Afram recalculated the GDP figures and he moved it up in 2010 by 75%. The base year moved from 1993 to 2006. However, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya received their GDP statistics in 2004. This led to an increase of between 25% and 75% in their economies.
The growth in Ghana GDP data will reflect the drop in the important macroeconomic indicators. The country’s fiscal shortfall was more than 10% of GDP between 2012 and 2014. This increased the debts and hindered the growth of cedi. Furthermore, Ghana opted for International Monetary Fund. They received around $1 billion bailouts in 2015. They have also talked of extension of the program until the end of 2018.
According to the current president, efforts to improve the economy are fruitful. Moreover, the country’s debts went down and the government is working on ways to control the spending. Furthermore, the budget deficit reduced to 5.6% of GDP in 2017 from the previous estimate of 6.3%.
