Publication: Ghana Poverty Assessment
Date
2020-11
ISSN
Published
2020-11
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
After the return to democracy, Ghana
achieved significant economic growth and poverty reduction.
However, in recent years, the rate of poverty reduction has
slowed, becoming insignificant after 2012. The largest
reduction in poverty, 2 percent per year, was reached from
1991–1998. Subsequently, the rate of decline fell to 1.4
percent in 1998–2005, 1.1 percent in 2005–2012, and dropped
to 0.2 percent per year between 2012 and 2016. The slowdown
in poverty reduction was not due to a reduction in GDP per
capita growth, which peaked between 2005 and 2012 and
remained high between 2012 and 2016. Rather, it was due to a
drop in the rate to which economic growth translated into
poverty reduction. The growth elasticity of poverty
(percentage reduction in poverty associated for every one
percentage change in GDP per capita) was 1.2 between 1991
and 1998 but declined to less than 0.1 between 2012 and
2016, indicating a 1 percent increase in GDP per capita led
to less than 0.1 percent reduction in poverty.
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. Ghana Poverty Assessment. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34804 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”