Ghana’s economy grew by 5.5% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025, underpinned by strong performances in agriculture and services, the Ghana Statistical Service reported on Wednesday.

The growth, while positive, slowed from a revised 7.0% recorded in the same period last year, largely due to weak industrial sector performance, which expanded by just 0.8%, government statistician Alhassan Iddrisu told reporters.

Agriculture emerged as a key driver, with fishing and crop production pushing sector growth to 8.6%. The services sector, covering finance, insurance, trade, and education, also contributed significantly with a 7.6% expansion.

“Agriculture’s contribution to growth was outsized, showing a sector that is recovering quickly and adding real weight to the national output,” Iddrisu said.

Non-oil GDP rose by 6.8%, slightly below last year’s 7.8%, reflecting continued challenges outside Ghana’s resource sectors. The country, a major producer of gold, oil, and cocoa, is gradually emerging from its most severe economic crisis in decades.

Macroeconomic stability appears to be improving. Annual inflation fell for the 11th consecutive month in November to 6.3%, the lowest level since a 2021 rebasing exercise. In response, Ghana’s central bank has reduced its main interest rate by a cumulative 1,000 basis points this year, citing both the improved economic outlook and expectations for continued declines in inflation.

Analysts note that the recovery is heavily reliant on agriculture and services, while industrial stagnation poses a risk to sustaining higher overall growth. Policy measures, including supportive fiscal and monetary policies, are likely to remain critical to strengthen manufacturing and industrial activity, diversify the growth base, and ensure that the recent decline in inflation translates into broader economic gains for households and businesses.

Comparative Analysis: Ghana’s 2025 Economic Performance in West Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa

This growth, while moderate in absolute terms, situates Ghana above the average expansion expected across Sub?Saharan Africa in 2025, where growth forecasts cluster broadly around the lower to mid?4?percent range according to the latest outlooks from multilateral institutions. In the West African sub?region, Ghana’s performance also compares favorably with regional peers, reflecting relative resilience even as the country works to diversify its economic base.

Ghana’s economic figures signal a rebound in parts of the economy that have been under pressure in recent years. By contrast, industrial output was sluggish, growing by only 0.8?percent, which underscores persistent weakness in manufacturing and construction activity.

Comparatively, some regional peers such as Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire are expected to record higher growth rates in 2025, benefiting from robust energy investment and sustained private investment. Senegal, for example, is forecast to grow at close to 8½?percent, and Côte d’Ivoire has been projected in some assessments to expand at roughly 6?percent, supported by infrastructure spending and diversified services.

Across Sub?Saharan Africa, growth remains uneven. Nigeria’s expansion is expected to be more modest, constrained by structural bottlenecks that have limited non?oil activity. South Africa — the continent’s largest economy — is forecast to post relatively low growth, weighed down by subdued investment and long?standing structural challenges.

In this wider context, Ghana’s around?5½?percent rate places it above many of its peers and signals a stronger recovery trajectory, particularly when coupled with improving macroeconomic conditions.

However, Ghana’s recovery is not without vulnerabilities. The industrial sector’s weak performance remains a concern because manufacturing and construction are key conduits for job creation and broader value addition. Dependence on primary commodity exports — gold, cocoa, and oil — leaves the economy exposed to global price volatility and external demand shifts, a weakness shared by many Sub?Saharan economies that have yet to achieve deep export diversification.

Inflation, while slowing, could remain sensitive to external shocks, and fiscal pressures observed across several African countries may constrain the scope for public investment unless revenue mobilization improves.

Looking ahead to 2026, forecasts generally indicate that Ghana will continue to register moderate growth, with projections pointing to rates in the high?4?percent range. This suggests a gradual continuation of the recovery, supported by stable prices, expansion in agriculture and services, and policy measures that sustain confidence among investors.

Across Sub?Saharan Africa, growth is expected to strengthen modestly in 2026, but the picture will remain heterogeneous with divergence across countries. Some West African economies with robust energy sectors and investment inflows are expected to outperform, while others grappling with weaker commodity revenues or structural constraints may lag.

In the latest development of a protracted, 16-year legal saga, U.S. chipmaker Intel lost its challenge against an EU antitrust ruling on Wednesday, but secured a significant financial reduction.

Europe’s second-highest court, the General Court, upheld the European Commission’s finding that Intel engaged in anticompetitive conduct but slashed the associated fine by nearly one-third, from the €376 million imposed in 2023 to €237,105,540 (approximately $278 million).

The decision, known as Case T-1129/23 Intel Corporation v Commission, marks a partial victory for Intel, as the new figure represents a far cry from the original €1.06 billion fine imposed by the Commission in 2009 for broader market abuse allegations, which was largely thrown out by the courts in 2022.

The Original 2009 Case and Its Partial Annulment

The long-running dispute began when the European Commission imposed a then-record fine of €1.06 billion on Intel in 2009 for abuse of its dominant position in the x86 microprocessor market. The Commission’s original decision focused on two main areas of illegal conduct spanning from 2002 to 2007:

1. Conditional Rebates (The Annulled Part): This was the largest portion of the fine, concerning exclusivity rebates granted to several major computer manufacturers, including Dell, HP, NEC, and Lenovo. These rebates were conditioned on the manufacturers buying all or almost all of their x86 CPUs from Intel.

The Commission argued that these “loyalty rebates” essentially denied rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) a chance to compete on the merits, forcing manufacturers to stick with Intel to avoid losing the rebate across their much larger volume of Intel purchases.

2. Naked Restrictions (The Upheld Part): This involved direct payments and other restrictions imposed on manufacturers and a large retailer to halt or delay the launch of specific products equipped with AMD processors. This conduct was deemed abusive because its sole object was to exclude the rival.

In a landmark victory for Intel, the General Court effectively overturned the conditional rebates portion of the 2009 fine in 2022. The court ruled that the Commission had made key errors by failing to provide a sufficiently detailed and complete economic analysis, including a proper application of the “as-efficient competitor” (AEC) test. This test requires regulators to show that a rival as efficient as the dominant firm would still be foreclosed by the pricing practice.

The Infringement: “Naked Restrictions”

The fine upheld by the court concerns a narrow, yet serious, category of anti-competitive practices known as “naked restrictions.” This term, in EU competition law, refers to restrictions on competition that have no pro-competitive purpose and whose sole objective is to restrict or exclude rivals.

Specifically, the General Court confirmed that Intel made payments to three major computer manufacturers—HP, Acer, and Lenovo—between November 2002 and December 2006. The payments were conditioned on the manufacturers agreeing to halt or delay the launch of rival products utilizing processors from Intel’s competitor, Advanced Micro Devices.

While the court upheld the Commission’s finding that the naked restrictions were an abuse of Intel’s dominant position in the x86 microprocessor market, it agreed with Intel’s argument that the scale of the original €376 million fine was disproportionate.

The judges in Luxembourg reasoned that the new figure of €237 million is a “more appropriate reflection of the gravity and duration of the infringement at issue,” based on two key mitigating factors:

1. Limited Scope: The restrictions were found to have affected a relatively limited number of computer models, rather than representing a market-wide foreclosure strategy.
2. Infringement Gaps: The court noted that there were 12-month gaps separating some of the anti-competitive practices, suggesting the conduct was not a continuous, uninterrupted scheme throughout the entire period.

The court rejected Intel’s other arguments, including claims that its rights of defense were infringed, maintaining that the Commission correctly relied on the practices that were not annulled in the earlier judgments.

Implications and What’s Next

This ruling is a significant victory for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, as it confirms the judicial sustainability of its 2023 decision (re-imposed after the 2009 penalty was mostly overturned). Commissioner Didier Reynders had stated in 2023 that the decision showed the Commission’s commitment to ensuring “that very serious antitrust breaches do not go unsanctioned.”

However, the 15-year saga may not yet be over. Both the European Commission and Intel have the right to appeal the General Court’s decision to the EU Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, though appeals are limited to points of law. The final resolution of this case will continue to shape the legal standards for proving exclusionary abuse and calculating fines in future EU antitrust cases against dominant technology firms.

The consensus among Germany’s leading economic institutes is one of stability, but stagnation. The country’s economy has stabilized after two years of contraction, but remains deeply entrenched in a phase of meagre, structurally weak growth.

The eagerly anticipated fiscal expansion planned for the coming years is expected to provide only limited and delayed momentum, leading multiple institutes to cut their growth forecasts for 2026 and 2027.

Forecasts Downgraded Across the Board

Three major economic institutes—Ifo, Kiel, and RWI—released forecasts on Thursday that paint a picture of persistently weak underlying conditions for Europe’s largest economy.

For the current year, all three institutes expect growth to hover at a barely perceptible 0.1%. The expected stronger headline growth rates of 1.0% to 1.3% in 2026 and 2027, driven partially by government stimulus and more working days, are widely seen as masking a persistent lack of self-sustaining momentum. As the Kiel Institute warned, “A self-sustaining upswing is still not in sight.”

Headwinds: Tariffs, Red Tape, and Delayed Stimulus

The slow pace of recovery is being attributed to a combination of persistent structural problems and external geopolitical pressures. U.S. tariffs continue to have a noticeable and damaging effect on Germany’s critical export industry. The Ifo Institute estimates that higher tariffs will dampen GDP growth by 0.3 percentage points in 2025 and a more significant 0.6 percentage points in 2026. This pressure compounds structural weaknesses and forces manufacturers to adapt in a volatile global trade environment.

The head of forecasts at Ifo, Timo Wollmershaeuser, pointed to deep-seated issues that are hindering adaptation. He stated, “The German economy is adapting only slowly and at great expense to the structural shift through innovation and new business models.”

He specifically noted that companies, particularly start-ups, are being severely constrained by excessive red tape and outdated infrastructure.

A key source of disappointment is the slow rollout of planned public investments. The hoped-for stimulus from the €500 billion special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality is “still failing to materialize,” according to the RWI Institute. RWI Chief Economist Torsten Schmidt cautioned: “The later they arrive and the more fundamental reforms fail to materialise, the greater the damage to the German economy.”

The slow pace of public investment is failing to offset weak demand and falling private investment.

Widening Deficit and Labor Constraints

The expected increase in public spending, though delayed, will come at a cost to the government’s balance sheet. The Kiel Institute projects Germany’s general government budget deficit will widen significantly, climbing from 2.4% of GDP in 2025 to 4.0% in 2027.

Regarding the labor market, a gradual recovery is expected as activity picks up, with the unemployment rate projected to fall from 6.3% this year to 5.9% in 2027. However, this recovery will be immediately constrained by long-term structural issues.

The report warns that larger employment gains will increasingly be limited by a demographic shortage of workers, a major hurdle for the economy’s potential growth.