Ghana Growth

Economic Measure

Ranking

Gini Index

41

Population living on less than a $

a day

45%

Population living on less than 2$

a day

79%

Poverty Gap 1$ a day

17%

Poverty Gap 2$ a day

41%

Life Expectancy

58 years

Literacy Rate

58%

Access to Improved Sanitation

18%

Limits to Growth

Ghana remains somewhat dependent on international financial and technical assistance as well as the activities of the
extensive Ghanaian diaspora.
Gold, timber. Cocoa, diamond, bauxite and manganese are the major sources of foreign exchange
There is also a huge amount of oil exploration
High inflation 8.1%
Bad infrastructure for getting out of ground
Electricity has reached capacity with the Volta dam supplying 97 percent of all electricity

How Can Ghana Overcome the

Problem

Rely less on donor aid

Primary and junior secondary school education is tuition-free and mandatory however
in rural areas educational attainment is low, the public need convincing of the benefit
of education (it is a merit good)
Oil discovery attracted an intense amount of FDI into the country with many MNCs
setting up shop, however much of the profit is repatriated and does not go into
investment into the infrastructure in Ghana.
Despite the oil and mineral wealth now being exploited, agriculture remains a
mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-third of GDP and about 55%
of formal employment, however they have been reluctant to benefit from the green
revolution so productivity is low

Japan

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Japan expanded 1.40 percent in the third
quarter of 2011 over the previous quarter
GDP PPP was at $33,805 in 2010
There is a huge concentration on technology as there is limited natural resources
There is hardly any grorth in the last 20 years

Japan Limits To Growth

Japan has inadequate natural resources to support its growing economy and large
population.
There is a huge aging populaiton, as medicine improves people live longer and the
opportunity cost of having children increases
It has just passed Italy to become the country with the highest proportion of over-65s
anywhere and the lowest ratio of children under 15.
Tokyo's Narita airport, the uniformed marshals who direct arriving passengers to the
correct passport control queue are visibly of pensionable age. Taxi drivers and smallshop keepers are more likely than not to be grey-haired

How Can Japan Overcome the

Problem

It's estimated that the cost of damage from the giant earthquake and tsunami in
Japan could exceed $300 billion, there needs to be substantial help from other
countries to help with the clean up.
Needs to encourage pro natal policies TFR is at 1.5 at the moment, the average is
2.2