Opportunities and challenges of the Ghanaian economy with the commercial production of Oil

Abstract

The study sought to answer three research questions regarding the impact of the new oil sector on the economy of Ghana. The areas covered by these questions include: oil price developments and their impact on economic activities in Ghana, the overall productive impact of the oil sector on economic multipliers and linkages of other sectors of the economy as well as the impact of the sector on traditional agriculture, manufacturing and underground economic activities in Ghana. For the first research question on the impact of shocks to crude oil prices on economic activities, the study employed a Vector Error Correction model for the analysis. The modelled variables were GDP and crude oil prices. GDP was used as the measure of economic activities. Both variables were transformed into logarithmic form. The results show that Ghana as an oil exporting country and a net oil importer is affected by fluctuations in oil prices. It suggests that a one standard error shock to crude oil prices has a transitory and negative effect on GDP in Ghana after one year