Ghana Economy - 2004

Economy - overview:
Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has roughly twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even so, Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance. Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major sources of foreign exchange. The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 35% of GDP and employs 60% of the work force, mainly small landholders. Ghana opted for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) program in 2002. Policy priorities include tighter monetary and fiscal policies, accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services. Receipts from the gold sector should help sustain GDP growth in 2004. Inflation should ease, but remain a major internal problem.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $44.49 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
4.8% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,200 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 35.2%
industry: 25.4%
services: 39.4% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
31.4% (1992 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.2%
highest 10%: 30.1% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
40.7 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
26.4% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
9 million (2000 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 60%, industry 15%, services 25% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
20% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.603 billion
expenditures: $1.975 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2001 est.)

Industries:
mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
3.8% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
8.801 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 5%
hydro: 95%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption:
8.835 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
300 million kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
950 million kWh (2001)

Oil - production:
7,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
38,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

Oil - proved reserves:
8.255 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
11.89 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Agriculture - products:
cocoa, rice, coffee, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, corn, shea nuts, bananas; timber

Exports:
$2.642 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities:
gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminum, manganese ore, diamonds

Exports - partners:
Netherlands 14.6%, UK 9.7%, US 6.9%, Germany 6.4%, France 5.7%, Nigeria 4.7%, Belgium 4.4%, Italy 4.1% (2002)

Imports:
$3.24 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities:
capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
Nigeria 20.8%, UK 7%, US 6.4%, China 6%, Italy 6%, Cote d'Ivoire 6%, Germany 4.6% (2002)

Debt - external:
$7.4 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$6.9 billion (1999)

Currency:
cedi (GHC)

Currency code:
GHC

Exchange rates:
cedis per US dollar - NA (2003), 7,932.7 (2002), 7,170.76 (2001), 5,455.06 (2000), 2,669.3 (1999)