Ghana’s economy grew by 4.9% in quarter one of 2020, provisional figures from the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed.

This is compared to a growth rate of 6% of Gross Domestic Product during the same period in 2019.

According to the GSS, the services sector recorded the highest growth rate of 9.5% followed by the agriculture sector, which expanded by 2.8% and the industry sector by 1.5%.

The main sub-sectors driving GDP growth in January to March 2020 GDP were information & communication, manufacturing, education and public administration & defence, social security.

Importantly, the services sector was the main driver of Gross Domestic Product growth contributing 3.6 percentage points to overall GDP growth rate of 4.9% in quarter one, 2020.

From the figures above, the services sector GDP, particularly, was not impacted by COVID-19 in the first quarter because the lockdown took place on the last day of March 2020.

In the services sector, information and communication grew by 17.1% in the 1st quarter of 2020 compared to 14.6% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The real estate, however, slowed to 3.8% in the 1st quarter of 2020 from 6.8% recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019.

Compared to 4th quarter of 2019, the public administration & defence, social security expanded to 3.3% in 2020 Q1.

There were contractions in the sub-sectors: trade, repair of vehicle, household goods (-1.0%) and the professional, administrative & support (-1.5%) sub-sectors.

Within the industry sector, the electricity sub-sector recorded 4.1% GDP in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 2.6% growth recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019.

Water supply, sewerage, waste management & remediation activities sub-sector grew by 2.5% in quarter one of 2020, compared to -0.5% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The manufacturing sub-sector grew by 1.3% in 1st quarter of 2020, compared to 1.8% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The mining and quarrying sub-sector, however, slowed to 0.3% in the 1st quarter of 2020, from 1.6% recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019

Construction recorded the least growth rate of -1.7% in first quarter of 2020 compared to -0.6% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

In the agriculture sector, the fishing sub-sector grew by 2.6% in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 2.2% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The Livestock subsector recorded 1.3% growth rate compared to 1.7% growth rate recorded in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The crops sub-sector grew by 0.6% in the 1st of 2020, compared to 2.0% in the 4th quarter of 2019.

Ghana’s economy is forecast to grow between 2.5 and 2% in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.