A new data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that Ghana’s economy expanded by 6.3% from April to June this year as compared to the same period in 2024.

According to the latest update, growth surged to 9.9%, up from just 2% in the same period last year.

In 2024, a 5.7% was recorded in the same period. Additionally, the GSS disclosed that Ghana’s non-oil economy grew 7.8%, with agriculture and other sectors, which helped balance out the negative effect of declining oil production.

In March this year, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) attributed the country’s 5.7% economic growth in 2024 to the strong performance of the services sector, particularly the increased use of data and SMS under the Information and Communication Services category.

The first quarter’s growth represents a 0.4% increase from the 4.9% growth recorded during the same period last year. The services sector and the agricultural sector are responsible for the strong performance, according to the GSS.

"All sectors recorded growth, apart from the Industry sector, which recorded a contraction. This is driven by oil and gas. Growth in the services sector was dominated by the ICT sector, followed by the Financial and Insurance sub-sectors", Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, the Government Statistician, told the media on Wednesday, June 11.

Slow growth in the oil and gas sector led to the industry sector recording a rate of 3.4%. The non-oil growth rate, however, was 6.8%.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, March 11, former Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Anim emphasized that services contributed the most to the overall growth, surpassing other sectors.

“Of the 5.7% growth rate that we saw in GDP, the services sector contributed the most, 2.51% of the 5.7% GDP growth rate that we saw for 2024.

“Followed by the industry sector, which mining and quarrying is part of, which gold is part of, contributed to 2.24% of that. Within the service sector, what is driving the service sector is information and communication. And in this case, it’s data and SMS messages that we are using,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s economic outlook for 2025 has been slightly downgraded by the World Bank, with the institution forecasting a 3.9% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth—lower than both the government’s projection of 4.4% and the World Bank’s earlier forecast of 4.3%.

The updated projection is contained in the April 2025 edition of the Africa Pulse Report, where the Bretton Woods institution also anticipates modest improvements in the country’s economic performance over the next two years, projecting a growth rate of 4.6% in 2026 and 4.8% in 2027.

According to the World Bank, weather-related uncertainties remain a major concern, especially as they affect key export commodities such as cocoa in both Ghana and neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

These climate disruptions have also had ripple effects on global cocoa stockpiles and pricing. However, the World Bank highlighted renewed optimism among businesses and improvements in sectors like manufacturing and services during the early months of 2025.

Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has expressed optimism about the growth of the Ghanaian economy after the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) recorded a 5.3% economic growth for the first quarter of 2025.

Engaging the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Wednesday, June 11, the president stated that the government's policies are ensuring that the country’s growth is returning to normalcy.

“The first quarter results have come in at around 5.4%, which indicates that the economy is returning to a normal growth path. This should be viewed as a good sign for us. If we close the year with a growth rate of around 5%, it would mean the economy is expanding rather than contracting,” he said.

President Mahama highlighted the fiscal indiscipline by the erstwhile government led to economic imbalance and instability.“In the past, fiscal indiscipline has thrown the macro-economy off balance, creating instability, a depreciating currency, and other challenges. This affects all of us, as it impacts our quality and standard of living.”

He, however, committed to ensuring “stability across all sectors and greater prosperity for our citizens.”

“It is in our interest that the macro economy is stable, our currency is stable, and our economy is growing and delivering prosperity for our people,” the president added.

Meanwhile, inflation for August 2025 dropped to 11.5% from 12.1% recorded in July this year, marking the eighth consecutive month of recorded inflation since October 2021.

As of June, the country recorded a 13.7 percent rate, a 4.7 percent decline from the 18.4 percent rate reported in May. Food inflation fell by 6.5 percentage points to 16.3 percent, down from 22.8 percent in May, whereas non-food inflation dropped by 3 percentage points to 11.4 percent.

The Upper West Region recorded the highest regional inflation of 32.3%, largely due to food inflation and utilities. The Bono region recorded the lowest of 8.4%.

On a regional level, the Upper West Region once again recorded the highest inflation at 24.8%, though this was down from 32.3% in June. This figure is more than twice the national average of 12.1%. In contrast, the Central Region posted the lowest rate at 7.7%.

Before the release of GSS's recent data, an economic research firm, IC Research, projected that Ghana’s inflation rate would experience a significant decline, dropping to 16% by the end of June.

According to IC Research, the projected improvement is partly driven by the appreciation of the local currency and a reduction in fuel prices, both of which are easing inflationary pressures.

“The June 2025 CP [Consumer Price Index]I data window recorded a 29.5% month-on-month and 35.3% year-on-year appreciation of the Ghanaian cedi against the US dollar. This exerted downward pressure on prices of imported items, with notable declines in petroleum prices and transport fares.

The announced 15.0% reduction in commercial transport fares will continue to restrain transport inflation with downside spillovers for other items.”

“Additionally, we estimate that the lower transport cost likely eased the month-on-month pressure observed for vegetables & tubers last month, potentially sustaining food disinflation in June [2025].

Consequently, we forecast a 240 basis points decline in the June 2025 annual inflation to 16.0% with the month-on-month rate at 0.8%", IC Research added.

Ghana ended the year 2024 with 23.8% inflation. In January 2025, inflation slightly declined to 23.5%. And since then, it has continued to ease. In February, inflation declined to 23.1%; it saw another decrease in March to 22.4% and declined again in April to 21.2%.

Due to the consistent decline in the inflation rate and recorded progress with other macroeconomic variables, the Bank of Ghana's (BoG) Monetary Policy Committee has reduced the monetary policy rate from 28 percent to 25 percent.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Asiama, noted that the deceleration was underpinned by the tight monetary policy stance, fiscal consolidation, easing food supply constraints, as well as the strong recovery of the cedi.

In line with the easing underlying inflation pressures, the Bank’s main core inflation measure, which excludes energy and utility items, has declined markedly.

“Similarly, inflation expectations by banks, consumers, and businesses are broadly anchored,” he added. He further revealed that "growth in monetary aggregates remained subdued during the first half of the year, primarily due to the tight monetary policy stance, strong liquidity management, and reduced government borrowing."

"In line with the disinflation process and easing inflation expectations, interest rates at the short end of the money market have declined sharply, and in turn, reduced the cost of government borrowing," the BoG Governor added.

According to Dr Asiama, data on budget execution indicated a strong commitment to fiscal consolidation as expenditures adjusted within set targets to accommodate the revenue shortfalls during the first half of 2025.

As a result, the overall fiscal deficit on a commitment basis was 0.7 percent of GDP, outperforming the budget target of 1.8 percent of GDP.

"The external sector has improved markedly, with a record current account surplus of US$3.4 billion in the first half of 2025, supported mainly by higher prices and increased production volumes of gold and cocoa.

"The current account surplus, together with the outturns in the capital and financial accounts, culminated in an overall balance of payment surplus of US$2.2 billion, significantly higher than the US$588.5 million recorded in June 2024.

"On this score, Gross International Reserves stood at US$11.1 billion at end-June 2025, equivalent to 4.8 months of import of goods and services, compared to US$8.9 billion (4.0 months of import cover) as at end-December 2024," he added.

Overall, the Committee noted that macroeconomic conditions have significantly improved, "inflation expectations are broadly anchored, external buffers have strengthened, and confidence in the economy is returning."

The cedi has rebounded strongly against the major trading currencies. The cedi has recorded a remarkable turnaround in the first six months of 2025, appreciating by 42.6% against the US dollar.

The cedi also appreciated by 30.3% against the British pound and 25.6% against the euro during the same period.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana has projected that inflation is likely to decline further and fall within the medium-term target range of 6 to 10 percent during the third quarter of 2025, ahead of earlier expectations.

“The July forecast also shows that headline inflation is expected to decline further in the third quarter of 2025 and trend within the medium-term target of 8±2 percent by the end of 2025, earlier than initial projections,” the Governor noted.