Ghana recorded a trade surplus of US$1.7 billion in August 2022. This is an increase from the US$892.4 million recorded in August 2021.
This was revealed by the Bank of Ghana at a press briefing on October 6, 2022.
According to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, the increase was due to “higher receipts from gold, crude oil, and non-traditional exports, notwithstanding increased demand for oil and gas imports.”
He also noted that the country witnessed an increase in total exports to the tune of US$3.8 billion.
“Total exports went up by 19.5 percent year-on-year to US$11.8 billion. Crude oil exports totalled U$3.8 billion, 56.5 percent higher than observed in 2021, mainly due to price effects.
Gold export earnings also went up by 23.9 percent to US$4.2 billion, supported by increased production volumes triggered by the positive response from small-scale gold exporters to the downward revision of the withholding tax regime from 3 percent to 1.5 percent.
Despite these increases, cocoa receipts declined by 22.8% to hit US$1.7billion.
“However, on account of lower prices and low cocoa purchases, cocoa receipts declined by 22.8 percent to US$1.7 billion from US$2.1 billion.
Total merchandise imports grew by 12.9 percent on a year-on-year basis to US$10.2 billion, mainly driven by a higher oil and gas import bill of US$3.1 billion at the end-August 2022, relative to US$1.7 billion in the same period of 2021. Non-oil imports, however, dipped by 3.8 percent year-on-year to US$7.1 billion in the review period,” he added.
Source:ghanaweb.com