The services sector maintained its position as the dominant sector in the Ghanaian economy despite contracting 2.6 percent in the second quarter of the year.
The second quarter GDP figures released by the Bank of Ghana shows that the services sector accounted for 47.7 percent of the country’s GDP as compared to industry with 33.1 percent and agriculture with 19.1 percent.
Since the first quarter of 2013 which is the current base year, the services sector has been dominant except in the third and fourth quarters of 2014 where industry’s contribution to GDP was higher than that of the services sector.
In the third quarter of 2014, the share of industry was 42.7 percent having increased from 37.4 percent in the presiding quarter as compared to services whose contribution decreased to 38.2 percent from 43.4 percent in the second quarter.
Similarly, in the fourth quarter of 2014, industry contributed 38.1 percent to the country’s overall GDP as against services which declined further to 37.3 percent whilst agriculture also picked up contributing 24.6 percent of GDP in the same quarter.
However, in the first quarter of 2015, the services sector bounced back strongly to reclaim its position as the dominant sector, contributing 42.9 percent to overall GDP. The contribution of both Industry and agriculture declined to 33.5 and 23.6 percent respectively in the same quarter.
Year-on-year analyses shows that, industry recorded the biggest contraction of 5.7 percent in the second quarter of 2020, followed by services with 2.6 percent. The Agriculture sector however, grew by 2.5 in the second quarter.
The 2.5 percent growth in Agriculture was driven mainly by expansion in the three (3) out of the four (4) of its major sub-sectors. The expanding sub-sectors are Livestock (5.7 %), Crops (3.0%) and Fishing (0.3%). Forestry & Logging sub-sector, however, contracted by 8.4 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
Industry was weighed down heavily by a contraction in Manufacturing as well as Mining & Quarrying by 14.3% and 5.6% respectively. However, Electricity; Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management & Remediation Activities; and Construction sub-sectors expanded by 16.0%, 10.1%, and 3.6% respectively.
The Services sector was weighed down heavily by contraction in Hotel & Restaurants (-79.4%); Trade, Repair of Vehicle & Household Goods (-20.2%); Professional, Administrative & Support (-11.2%); and Other Personal Service Activities ( -9.1%). Information & Communication experienced the biggest expansion of 74.2% with Transport & Storage growing marginally by 0.8 percent.
Quarter-on-quarter analyses also pointed out that among the three major sectors of the Ghanaian economy, only the agriculture sector expanded slightly 0.5 percent in the second quarter as compared to 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020. Industry and Services, however, contracted by 1.4 and 0.6 percent in the second quarter.
This development resulted in overall GDP contraction of 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2020 compared to a 4.9 percent expansion in the first quarter of the year.
In nominal terms, the GDP estimate at current prices in purchaser’s value for the second quarter of 2020 was GH¢85,758.1 million compared to GH¢84,312.0 million in the second quarter of 2019.
The Non-oil GDP, that is, GDP without Oil and Gas, estimate at current prices for the second quarter of 2020 was GH¢83,649.8 million compared to GH¢80,645.1 million in the second quarter of 2019
