Do oil prices influence economic growth in Ghana? An empirical analysis

The study examined the causal linkage between oil price change and economic growth. The study made use of secondary data that were extracted from World Development Indicators and International Financial Statistics. Descriptive statistics, unit root test, Johansen cointegration test and Granger causality test were employed to analyse the data. The results of the study revealed that there exists an inverse relationship between oil price change and economic growth in Ghana. However, the effect of oil price change on economic growth is statistically insignificant in the long run. The result of the Granger causality similarly revealed a unidirectional causality between oil prices and economic. In conclusion, the variation in oil price has no effect on the growth of the Ghanaian economy; hence, policies to influence economic growth should be independently pursued of oil price changes.