The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has released the provisional data on the growth of the economy in the third quarter of 2025, revealing that the 2025 Q3 real GDP growth rate was 5.5 percent.
Although it represents an expansion in the economy, it falls short compared to the real growth rate recorded at 7.0 percent in the same period of 2024.
“On the real side, that is, if we take away the effect of prices, the economy produced 50.8 billion GDP worth of goods and services in quarter 3 of 2025, compared to 48.2 billion GDP last year.
“This gives us a real GDP growth rate of 5.5% for quarter 3 of 2025. In quarter 3 of 2024, the rate was 7%. So, growth is still positive, but slower than last year, same period.”
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician
In terms of the headline figures, the real GDP for 2025 Q3 was GHȻ 50.8 billion, up from GHȻ 48.2 billion recorded in 2024 Q3, constituting a 5.5 percent growth. The Non-Oil Real GDP was GHȻ48.7 billion, up from GHȻ 45.6 billion in 2024 Q3. The Non-Oil Real GDP growth was 6.8 percent for 2025 Q3, compared to 7.8 percent recorded for 2024 Q3. This shows strong activity outside oil and gas, though slightly softer than last year.
The nominal GDP for 2025 Q3, which does not adjust for price change, was GHȻ 339.4 billion, up from GHȻ 293.1 billion recorded in 2024 Q3. The increase of 15.8% in the nominal GDP reflects both higher production and changes in prices. The Non-Oil Nominal GDP was GHȻ331.5 billion, up from GHȻ 278.5 billion in 2024 Q3.
Sectorial Performance
According to Dr Iddrisu, agriculture grew strongly at 8.6% in quarter 3 of 2025, making it one of the biggest sectoral drivers of the 5.5 percent overall growth observed in the third quarter of 2025. The sector contributed 30% to the overall 5.5 percent growth. However, most of the growth was derived from fishing and the crop sub-sectors.
The government Statistician revealed that the fishing and crop sub-sectors actually boosted the growth in the agricultural sector. Even with a modest share of the economy, agriculture’s contribution to growth was enormous, showing “a sector that is recovering quickly and adding real weight to the national output.”
The industry sector expanded by 0.8 percent, contributing as little as 4.7 percent to the overall growth of the economy. Manufacturing, however, held up, but the sharp 8.2 percent contraction in oil and gas was enough to drag the whole industry sector down.
With the industry contributing to 32.1 percent of the overall growth of the economy, the industry’s impact in the third quarter was muted. This reveals a persistent weakness in extractive activities despite pockets of stability elsewhere.
The service sector delivered a 7.6 percent growth and remained the largest and strongest sector of the economy. The sector contributed 59.5 percent to the overall growth in the third quarter. With ICT, trade, transport, and education all expanding, the services sector contributes the most to the 5.5 percent GDP growth recorded in the third quarter of 2025.
Therefore, while the agriculture sector leads the growth, the service sector remains the backbone of the growth of the Ghanaian economy.
According to Dr Iddrisu, the overall outlook shows that the economy continues to grow steadily in the third quarter of 2025. “Growth in overall GDP, non-oil GDP, services GDP, and agriculture GDP in the third quarter of 2025 all surpassed their average growth rate for the period 2014 to 2025, quarter three. It is only the industry sector whose growth was slower than the period average,” he declared.
Actors Urged to Further Boost Growth
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu urged all actors of the Ghanaian economy to remain steadfast while sustaining and building more momentum to further boost growth. He suggested that the household should take advantage of the eased food-price pressures to improve household food security, spend wisely, and rebuild savings to create a robust financial buffer for the future.
He cautioned businesses to use the data to drive strategic investment. As the performance of ICT, trade, transport, crops, and manufacturing continues to surge, businesses are counseled to shift capital and effort decisively toward these high-performing sectors to align private investment with national growth engines.
The government needs to focus on both the performing sectors and the struggling sectors. While scaling policy and infrastructure support for the agriculture and service sectors (such as ICT, trade, transport, and agriculture), the contraction in the oil and gas sub-sector must be addressed urgently to reverse the performance of the industry sector.
This balance is necessary to uphold the economy’s broad-based momentum and reduce its vulnerability to external shocks in the extractive industries.
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