Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, has revealed that in the first quarter of the year, the economy grew by 5.3%.

This represents a 0.4% increase from the 4.9% recorded during the same period last year.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in its report, noted that the services sector and the agricultural sector are responsible for the strong performance.

"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 told the media today, Wednesday, June 11.

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

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.

The report noted:“On average, the response to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods has diverted up to 9.0% of African governments’ budgets and rendered losses of 2.0% to 5.0% of economic activity.”

Despite the external challenges, Ghana is beginning to show signs of economic rebound. The World Bank highlighted renewed optimism among businesses and improvements in sectors like manufacturing and services during the early months of 2025.

“High-frequency indicators point to activity in manufacturing and services improving across countries in the region at the start of 2025. Business sentiment continues to expand in some countries (Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia), while in others it has bounced back from contraction (Ghana and Mozambique) or remains subdued (South Africa and Uganda),” the report noted.

Specifically, Ghana’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose from 47.9 in January to 50.6 in March 2025, indicating a return to growth territory. The World Bank attributes this recovery to improved demand conditions, fewer supply chain disruptions, and renewed business momentum following the December 2024 presidential elections.

Elsewhere, Sub-Saharan Africa’s overall economic growth is projected to edge up slightly from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.5% in 2025, with further acceleration expected to reach 4.3% in 2026 and 2027. However, the region’s growth continues to be weighed down by sluggish performances in some of its largest economies—namely Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa.

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.

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.