Ghana Q3 GDP growth rises – Statistics Office

Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product growth in the third quarter of 2016 rose to 4.0 per cent year-on-year up from 3.6 per cent in 2015, the Statistics Office said on Wednesday.
The Acting Government Statistician, Baah Wadieh, said in Accra that the increase was due to increased oil production.
Wadieh said: “We saw the resumption of oil production from the Jubilee field, and this contributed to the increase in GDP for the quarter.”
He added that the start of oil from the TEN Field also boosted growth.
For years, Ghana’s economy grew at 8 per cent annually on the back of its gold, oil and cocoa exports.
But it had slowed sharply since 2013 in part because of lower global commodities prices.
The government of outgoing President John Mahama had set a full year 2016 GDP target of 4.1 per cent and said growth would jump to around 8 per cent in 2015 as new offshore oil and gas come on stream.
Mahama lost a December 7 election to Nana Akufo-Addo, who would take over power in January.
Many voters said they chose the opposition because of dissatisfaction with the government’s economic record, particularly on unemployment and inflation.
Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party said it aimed to achieve double digit growth for every year of its four-year rule.
The current government said the economy was hurt by a fall in global prices for the country’s gold and oil exports.
Ghana is following an International Monetary Fund programme to reduce inflation and the deficit and restore fiscal balance.
Ghana’s producer price inflation, a major component of consumer inflation, rose to 11.9 per cent year-on-year in November from a revised 9.7 per cent in November.