Ghana’s statistics agency announced that the African country’s economy expanded by 6.9% year-over-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2024, the fastest rate in five years. This growth was driven by expansion in several important sectors.
The producer of gold, oil, and cocoa, which has been battling the worst economic crisis in a generation as a result of skyrocketing public debt, has made significant progress toward recovery with strong growth.
“The 6.9% growth rate is the highest since the second quarter of 2019 and it was driven largely by strong expansion in the extractive sector, just as we saw in the second quarter of 2019,” government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim said, as reported by Zawya.
The mining and quarrying industry drove the 9.3% growth in Ghana’s overall industry sector, while the 23.6% growth in the gold sector during the quarter marked the third consecutive period of expansion.
According to Annim, there was a 5.8% growth in the services sector and a 5.4% growth in agriculture. But in the second-largest cocoa producer in the world, the industry shrank by 26.2% for the fourth straight quarter, underscoring the effects of a consistent drop in crop productivity brought on by disease and unfavourable weather.
As the West African state restructures its debt, the economic recovery is a welcome addition. The company has reached a preliminary restructuring agreement with two bondholder groups and invited holders of its approximately USD 13 billion in foreign bonds to exchange their holdings for new instruments.
Bondholders have until September 30 to accept the offer though those who agree to do so before an early deadline on September 20 will be eligible for a 1% consent fee.
Meanwhile, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has started building a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery, which the government hopes will make the West African nation the petroleum hub of the region.