Ghana’s manufacturing sector declined by 14.3% in the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is according to a report by the World Bank titled, Ghana’s Economic Update: Structural Transformation and Labor Market Performance, Challenges and Opportunities.

“The manufacturing sub-sector was heavily affected by the disruption of global supply chains due to the pandemic, leading to a contraction of 14.3 percent in the second quarter,” the report noted.

The report, which is the fifth in the World Bank’s annual series on Ghana’s economic development and prospects dated October 2020, also noted that the share of the manufacturing sector (in total value and employment) is often used as a measure of structural transformation.

“First, manufacturing tends to be a technologically dynamic sector, which enables manufacturing enterprises to exhibit unconditional labour productivity convergence, unlike the rest of the economy. Second, manufacturing has traditionally absorbed a large share of unskilled labour, which sets it apart from other high-productivity sectors such as mining or finance. Finally, as a tradable sector, manufacturing does not face the demand constraints of a home market populated by low-income consumers. Instead, it can expand and absorb workers even as the rest of the economy remains technologically stagnant.”