(Bloomberg) — Ghana’s economy expanded at the fastest pace in more than a year in the third quarter, buoyed by growth in the services industry as schools that were forced to close last year because of the coronavirus pandemic reopened.
Gross domestic product expanded 6.6% in the three months through September from a year earlier, Government Statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told reporters Wednesday in the town of Winneba, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital. That compares with a revised expansion of 5.1% in the second quarter and is well above the median estimate of 3.5% forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
The fastest expansion since the first quarter of 2020, in addition to upward revisions to data from the first two quarters of this year, suggest Ghana will achieve the Treasury’s growth target of 4.4% this year.
The yield on Ghana dollar bond maturing in 2032 decreased almost 10 basis points to 11.3085% at 11:28 a.m. in Accra, from the level it was trading just before the release.
The services sector expanded 13.4% in the quarter, after the education subsector expanded 24.2% after children began returning to school. The government halted all in-person learning in March 2020, and only began reopening schools in January.
Read: Ghana to Reopen Schools on Jan. 15 After March Closure
The agricultural sector grew 9.2%, led by fishing, which expanded 14.3%.
Quarter-on-quarter overall GDP expanded 1.6%.
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