Ghana's economy growth slowed to 7.4 percent in the third quarter (Q3), compared with 8.7 percent in the same period of last year, Ghana Statistical Service(GSS) reported here on Wednesday.

But excluding oil, the economy grew 8.4 percent, compared to the 4.7 percent non-oil GDP growth recorded in the same period of last year.

The industry sector recorded a year-on-year growth rate of 11.7 percent for Q3, while agriculture grew 5.5 percent year-on-year.

Services recorded the lowest year-on-year growth rate of 3.5 percent, added Baah Wadieh, the Acting Government Statistician.

The relatively lower growth in Q3 was due to the negative growth in certain sub-sectors, said Wadieh.

"We had real estate recording -16 percent; finance and insurance recorded -8.8 percent and we had water supply, sewerage, waste management and irrigation activities recording a rate of -4.9 percent; fishing also declined to a rate of -0.8 percent," he explained.

Furthermore, there was contraction in the value addition for gas to -19 percent and -4.0 percent for crude oil in the third quarter and while there was also a contraction to -36 percent in the production of bauxite during the quarter under review.

On the other hand, health and social work recorded a growth rate of 28.4 percent; while mining and quarrying grew at a rate of 33.9 percent, which was mainly attributed to the expansion in the production of manganese.

Information and communication recording a rate of 9.9 percent; professional administration and support services also grew by 7.2 percent; and crops recorded an expansion of 6.8 percent.

"These actually pushed our third quarter inflation rate to the 7.4 percent that we recorded," the official said.