Emerging Africa: The Case of Ghana

Abstract

The growth record of Ghana has been one of unevenness, as Table I.1 and Figure I.1 clearly indicate. With a reasonably high GDP growth in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Ghanaian economy began to experience a slowdown in GDP growth as of 1964. Growth was turbulent during much of the period since the mid-1960s and only began to stabilize by 1984. In 1966, 1972, 1975-1976, 1979, 1980-1983, the growth rate was negative. The years in which negative growth was experienced generally coincide with change in government and sometimes with policy changes or reversals. Negative growth was first recorded during the time of the first coup d’etat, with a forceful transfer of authority from the dictatorial Nkrumah regime to the military headed by General Ankrah. The lowest growth of negative 14% was experienced in 1975, coinciding with the oil-supply shock as well as a policy reversal from a market-oriented stance to an inward looking protectionist regime. The period of turbulence, however, also had positive growth trends, with the highest peaks of growth rate reaching 9% in 1970 and 1978.