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 34% 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, but was included in a G-8 debt relief program decided upon at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005. Priorities under its current $38 million Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) include tighter monetary and fiscal policies, accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services. Receipts from the gold sector helped sustain GDP growth in 2005 along with record high prices for Ghana's largest cocoa crop to date. Inflation should ease but remains a major internal problem. Ghana also remains a candidate country to benefit from Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding that could assist in transforming Ghana's agricultural export sector. A final decision on its MCC bid is expected in spring 2006.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$51.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$9.233 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
4.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$2,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 35.5%
industry: 25.6%
services: 39% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
10.62 million (2005 est.)

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

Unemployment rate:
20% (1997 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:
30 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
15% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
24.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $3.216 billion
expenditures: $3.506 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2005 est.)

Public debt:
80.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

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

Industries:
mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing, cement, small commercial ship building

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

Electricity - production:
5.356 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
5.081 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
400 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
500 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
7,433 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
39,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
NA bbl/day

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

Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

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

Current account balance:
$57 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
$2.911 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

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

Exports - partners:
Netherlands 12.3%, UK 10%, France 6.9%, US 6.4%, Belgium 4.7%, Germany 4.5%, Japan 4.2% (2004)

Imports:
$4.273 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
Nigeria 12.6%, China 11.4%, UK 6.6%, US 6.4%, France 4.9%, Netherlands 4.2% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$1.732 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
$7.084 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$6.9 billion (1999)

Currency (code):
cedi (GHC)

Exchange rates:
cedis per US dollar - 9,072.5 (2005), 9,004.6 (2004), 8,677.4 (2003), 7,932.7 (2002), 7,170.8 (2001)