The World Bank is projecting that Ghana will grow by at least 5 percent by 2016.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VU8swE6VSdDquwvj1vzJPH37QuLEQg6T”]Though Ghana’s growth is projected to increase, others countries within sub-Saharan African will drop this year to about 3.7 percent from the 4.6 percent recorded in 2014.
This is the lowest growth since 2009.
This was disclosed by the World Bank in its Africa Pulse report.
The Africa Pulse Report attributed the decline in growth to sharp drops in the price of oil and other commodities, shortage in supply of electricity, the Chinese economic slowdown and tightening of global financial conditions.
Speaking to Citi Business News the country economist of the World Bank in Ghana Felix Oppong was optimistic government’s commitment to solving the energy crisis will see growth above the projected 3.5 percent.
“We expect that Ghana would get back to its long term growth of around 5% and so if you look at the projections it is expected that growth would move higher than the 3.5% we are expecting this year.
We assume energy crises is going to be fixed, we are going to have more oil because there are more exploration taking place and so once more oil is coming on stream and fixing the electricity problem immediately you expect that growth is going to move higher.”
He rejected claims that government is likely to overspend in 2016 which is an election year which will see a huge fall in projected growth for Ghana.
“The growth that we expect, it doesn’t have to be because of the election year but if you look at the fundamentals that government is to fix the energy problems immediately you have that running through the economy and more production can take place and if you have a recovery in oil prices then you expect that growth would be higher. If government is spending more on investments then you should expect growth to be higher.”
According to the World Bank 2015 forecast remains below the robust 6.5 percent growth in gross domestic product which the region sustained in 2003 – 2008 and drags below the 4.5 percent growth following the global financial crises in 2009 – 2014.
–
By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana