Ghana’s Economy Likely up to 40% Bigger, Reuters Reports

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana’s economy could be as much as 40 percent bigger when the statistics agency publishes overhauled data on output in September, Reuters reported, citing government officials it didn’t identified.

A bigger gross domestic product could improve Ghana’s debt ratio and get the government closer to achieving its budget-deficit target of 4.5 percent of GDP this year. The $45-billion economy is the seventh biggest in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the fastest growing.

The West African nation will measure economic output using 2013 prices instead of 2006 and the basket of activities used to value the economy is being expanded due to new industries that have formed since 2006, Asuo Afram, head of economic statistics at the Ghana Statistical Service, said in February.

The release date for the overhauled data has been pushed out at least twice, from May to June and then to end-September.