International Monetary Fund revises Ghana’s growth rate for 2020 at 5.6%

This represents a 0.4 percent decrease compared to the forecast of 6.0 percent in 2019

The figure is also against World Bank’s 6.8% which will make Ghana the 3rd fastest growing economy in Sub Saharan Africa.

IMF said this in its January 2020 World Economic Outlook Report it published on Monday, January 20, 2019.

According to the report, the 5.6% Gross Domestic Product is, however, higher than Sub Saharan Africa average growth rate of 3.5 percent in 2020–21, from 3.3 percent in 2019.

“But, in 2020 and 2021, the growth rate is forecast at low 4.0% and 3.7% respectively. This is against World Bank’s 5.2% and 4.6% respectively,” it said.

Adding that “in these years, oil and gas GDP will be negative. But analysts will be happy that growth will be led by the non-oil sectors.”

The Fund noted that in South Africa, the growth rate was revised down by 0.3 percentage points to 0.8% in 2020. Structural constraints and deteriorating public finances are the major factors impacting South Africa’s growth prospects negatively.

It forecasts a GDP growth rate of 2.5% for Nigeria.

In sub-Saharan Africa, growth is expected to strengthen to 3.5 percent in 2020–21 (from 3.3 percent in 2019).

The projection is 0.1 percentage point lower than in the October World Economic Outlook report for 2020 and 0.2 percentage point weaker for 2021.

Global growth is projected to rise from an estimated 2.9 percent in 2019 to 3.3 percent in 2020 and 3.4 percent for 2021—a downward revision of 0.1 percentage point for 2019 and 2020.

Market sentiment, however, has been boosted by tentative signs that manufacturing activity and global trade are bottoming out, a broad-based shift toward accommodative monetary policy, intermittent favourable news on US-China trade negotiations, and diminished fears of a no-deal Brexit.