GDP Growth Falls To 12% Year-on-Year In Third Quarter 2011

The unadjusted GDP growth has dropped to 12 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2011, compared with a revised 17.6 percent figure in the second quarter of 2011, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday. Dr Philomena Nyarko, Acting Government Statistician, said the industry sector recorded the highest growth of 32.7 percent, followed by the services sector with 5.8 percent and agriculture 5.2 percent. �Within the Industry sector, the influence of crude oil pushed the growth of the mining and quarrying sub-sector to 263.1 percent,� she said. She said growth in construction was also high at 25.9 percent whiles manufacturing recorded a negative growth of 15.4 percent. Crops sub-sector (including cocoa) increased by 10.2 per cent while negative growths were registered in Forestry (-11.0%) and Fishing (29.9%). Dr Nyarko said the main contributors to the increased economic activity in the Services sector were Transport and Storage, Information and Communication, Business and other service activities. She said seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter estimates of the real Gross Domestic Product showed a decline of 0.2 percent in the third quarter of 2011 over the second quarter of 2011. She said the Industry sector grew by 10.1 percent, Services by 3.1 percent and Agriculture declined by 6.8 percent during the third quarter.