Ghana sits on the Atlantic Ocean and borders Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. Its population is of about 29.6 million (2018). In the past two decades, Ghana has taken major strides toward democracy under a multi-party system, with its independent judiciary winning public trust. Ghana consistently ranks in the top three countries in Africa for freedom of speech and press freedom. Ghana’s rapid growth was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the March 2020 lockdown, and a sharp decline in commodity exports. The economy had grown at an average of 7 percent in 2017-19, before experiencing a sharp contraction in the second and third quarters of 2020. The economic slowdown had a considerable impact on households. The poverty rate is estimated to have slightly increased from 25 percent in 2019 to 25.5 percent in 2020. Ghana’s economy is projected to recover gradually over the medium term, thanks to commodity price growth and strong domestic demand. Ghana received $1 billion equivalent in the recent IMF SDRs allocation, part of which will go to support economic recovery. Growth is expected to average 5.1 percent yearly in 2021-23. After declining by 1.7 percent in 2020, real per capita GDP is projected to return to its pre-COVID-19 level in 2021. The public expenditure on health in Ghana corresponded to approximately 1.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. In comparison to 2017, the spending increased by 0.29 percentage points. In that year, the domestic general government health expenditure covered 1.09 percent of the country's GDP.
