ACCRA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Projections by international agencies that Ghana could regain its position as the "fastest growing economy" spot this year are in line with forecast made by the government of Ghana, Edward Asuo-Afram, Head of Economic Statistics at Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), told Xinhua here on Wednesday.
Research by renowned multilateral institutions has indicated that Ghana would emerge as the world's fastest growing economy this year, according to the New York Times.
The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Bank (AfDB) quoted by a New York Times report that Ghana may be poised to beat out India's growth and become the world's fastest growing economy for 2018.
Analysts hinged this projection on the rising commodity prices, expanding oil production as well as the country's position as the second largest exporter of cocoa in the world.
The West African nation is rapidly moving away from the historical poverty situation, the report stated.
The New York Times report said: "Projections currently suggest that Ghana's economy will grow from between 8.3 and 8.9 percent in 2018."
It added: "We took a look at the macroeconomic situation of the Ghanaian economy and suggested that the country was set to get back on track following a tough year in 2016, the reality is that this estimate may have been too conservative."
Commenting here on Wednesday, Asuo-Afram said the projections were in line with current economic trends in Ghana.
"I can say for a fact that before this projection by the IMF, the government of Ghana also made similar projections in the medium-term outlook. It just confirms Ghana government's medium-term numbers," the statistician said.
"Government itself had projected an economic growth rate of about 8.0 percent and so for us we will wait for it to happen and we shall measure and see the factors contributing to that economic growth," he said.
He explained that, for anybody to make projections, a look must first be taken at anything that increased output in the economy.
For Ghana, he said, economists looked at the oil sector because the oil sector output and the output of cocoa had gone up. "These are the two things that are pushing the growth," he said.
In 2011, Ghana's economy grew above 14.5 percent on account of first ever commercial oil production, making the West African country's economy the fastest growing in the world.
Situations, however, tumbled when the growth momentum deflated on account of high budget deficit in the election year of 2012 which led the country to seek an IMF relief in the form of the three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) worth nearly one billion U.S. Dollars.
Although the 2018 budget projected the economy to grow at 6.8 percent, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said during the March 6 Independence Day anniversary celebration that he expected the economy to grow at 8.3 percent.
The West African gold, cocoa and oil exporter had its economy growing 6.6 percent, 9.3 percent and 9.0 percent during first three quarters respectively last year, with much of the growth based on oil.
