Ghana’s economy posted strong growth of 5.7% in 2024 and 5.3% in Q1 2025, driven by robust trade and rising reserves, according to the World Bank’s 9th Economic Update. However, fiscal slippages in 2024 have weakened earlier stabilization gains, prompting calls for renewed structural reforms.
The Bank projects growth will slow to 3.9% in 2025 as fiscal adjustments, stubborn inflation, and high interest rates dampen domestic demand, before recovering to 5% over the medium term. Risks to stability include delays in debt restructuring, fiscal consolidation challenges, volatile commodity prices, and domestic threats such as exchange rate swings, climate shocks, and state-owned enterprise losses.
“Maintaining reform momentum, entrenching fiscal discipline, and urgently reforming the energy sector are essential,” said Robert Taliercio, Division Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The report urges action to foster private-led growth, close infrastructure gaps, improve the business climate, and address cocoa and energy sector challenges. With Ghana’s working-age population set to surge, it calls for a comprehensive jobs strategy focusing on youth skills, labor mobility, and productivity gains in agriculture through agro-processing and value chains.
Policy recommendations center on:
- Building physical and human capital through targeted infrastructure investment and workforce skills development.
- Improving the enabling environment by reforming insolvency laws, land registries, and access to finance.
- Mobilizing private capital via risk management tools, entrepreneurship support, and incentives for investment in underserved regions.
Failure to address these areas, the Bank warns, could undermine Ghana’s economic transformation and job creation ambitions.
