On July 18, the government of Ghana announced it has lowered its growth forecast for 2016 to 4.1% from 5.4%, due to irregular oil production.

“These developments have taken into consideration the release of revised GDP figures for 2015, revision of gold production forecasts for 2016-18, and the shutdown of the (oil production vessel) FPSO Kwame Nkurmah,” said Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, cited by Reuters.

Oil production was halted between March and May 2016 at the Jubilee offshore field after a failure at a floating oil platform, before partially restarting.

Over the 2003-2012 decade, Ghana’s GDP surged by about 7.5%, due mainly to gold, cocoa and oil exports.

The West African nation, which produces about 100,000 barrels of oil daily, started to experience economic challenges since 2013, due to a significant degradation of public accounts which translated into a high budget deficit, an inflation that exceeds official projections added to a debt-GDP ratio of more than 70%. Over the past year, the situation worsened as global oil prices slumped.