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Ghana Needs Gdp Growth Above 8 Pct To Cope With Rising Population

By Reuters
13 August 2015   |   9:11 pm
Ghana needs annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth above 8 percent to create jobs for its expanding population, President John Mahama said in a radio interview on Wednesday

GHANA---CopyGhana needs annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth above 8 percent to create jobs for its expanding population, President John Mahama said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Africa faces a long term challenge of creating jobs for an expanding population and Ghana, with a population of about 25 million, saw GDP growth of about 8 percent for years due to exports of cocoa, oil and gold.

But growth has slowed sharply in the last two years and is forecast at about 3.9 percent this year due to a fall in commodity prices and a fiscal crisis the government is aiming to resolve with the help of International Monetary Fund aid.

Ghana’s economic figures for the second quarter of this year will be “much better” than in the first quarter, Mahama said, based on figures he had seen which are yet to be released.

The cedi currency is seeing “some stabilisation” and is “finding its correct level”, he said.

The currency fell about 20 percent earlier this year, bounced back strongly in June and early July but has since given up much of those gains. It stood at 4.0100 to the dollar by 1015 GMT on Wednesday.

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