Oil drives Ghana's economic growth in 2019 – World Bank

Company News of Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-04-10

The World Bank predicted that Ghana's economy would experience strong growth in 2019, mainly because of the projected increase in oil and gas production.

In line with forecasts by the Government of Ghana, the bank predicts that the value of total economic activity, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), will increase by 7.6% in 2019.

The expected growth of 7.6% is higher than the 2.8% projected by the bank for sub-Saharan Africa.

In its 2019 budget, the Government of Ghana forecast a 7.4% economic growth this year.

Kwabena Gyan Kwakye, an economist at the World Bank's Ghana office, said the growth rate of 7.6 percent was a 1.4 percentage point increase over the bank's forecast for the year. economy in 2018.

He said this when he addressed the media on the sidelines of a video news conference from Washington, DC, USA last Monday. The video conference focused on the Bank's latest report, Africa's Pulse, which is a six-monthly badysis of the situation of African economies and projections for the future.

The conference was led by Dr. Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist of the World Bank for Africa.

Non-oil GDP

Kwakye cited Ghana's oil production as the main driver of projected growth.

He added that non-oil production sectors, such as mining, agriculture, services and manufacturing, would also be contributors.

"Oil production will resume in 2019. In addition to oil production, we also expect stronger growth in non-oil production, particularly when government policies on agriculture are going to be felt much in 2019. ", did he declare.

Sub-Saharan growth

Regarding sub-Saharan Africa, the report (Africa's Pulse) indicates that the projection of the growth rate of sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 is 0.5 percentage point higher than the growth rate of 2.3% recorded in 2018.

"We expect a recovery in growth in sub-Saharan Africa, which is expected to reach 2.8% in 2019, thanks to exports, private consumption, the rebound in agriculture and the rise in mining and quarrying and services. some countries, "adds the report.

Digital transformation

Earlier in his presentation of the Africa's Pulse report, Zeufack noted that digital transformation can pave the way for new paths to inclusive growth, innovation, service delivery and poverty reduction in Africa.

Although mobile connectivity has developed on the continent, Africa needs to take advantage of the new digital economy by improving its infrastructure.

"While Africa has made great progress in mobile connectivity, the continent is lagging behind the rest of the world in broadband access. There is still a long way to go, "he said.

He said that increased digitization could boost per capita income growth rate by 1.5% and reduce poverty by 0.7% annually.

"The benefits of digital transformation in sub-Saharan Africa are even greater: it can increase growth by almost two percentage points per year and reduce poverty by almost a percentage point a year," he said. -he declares.

He emphasized the need for digital skills, entrepreneurship and platforms within the digital space.