Editorial: Q1 GDP grows by 5.3%

Provisional figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicate that the economy has expanded by 5.3 percent in first quarter-2025, up from 4.9 percent recorded for the same period of 2024.

Government Statistician Alhassan Iddrisu noted that Real GDP for 2025 Q1 was GH¢53.5bn, up from GH¢50.8bn recorded in 2024 Q1.

The 2025 Q1 real GDP represents a growth rate of 5.3%, up from 4.9% in same period of 2024, despite the ongoing trade wars and global uncertainty.

This growth reflects a strong performance in key sectors of the economy, with the agriculture sector emerging as fastest-growing while services remained the dominant contributor to GDP.

According to GSS, the main drivers of Q1 2025 growth were crops, information and communication, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, transport & storage and finance and insurance.

Collectively, these sectors accounted for approximately 84.5 percent of total GDP growth.

Also, GSS noted that non-oil GDP grew by 6.8 percent year-on-year in Q1 2025 compared to 4.3 percent in Q1 2024, highlighting stronger growth in the economy’s non-extractive sectors.

Services remain the economy’s largest sector, contributing 46.8 percent to GDP at basic prices. It was followed by industry with 29.7 percent and agriculture at 23.5 percent.

In terms of real GDP growth, agriculture led with a 6.6 percent year-on-year expansion driven largely by strong growth in the fishing (16.4%) and crops (6.7%) sub-sectors.

In the industry sector, manufacturing showed the strongest performance with a 6.6 percent year-on-year growth and 1.9 percent quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, the oil and gas component of mining and quarrying contracted sharply by 22.1 percent – reflecting a significant drop in oil production.

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