Total exports hit $16.6 billion at end-2023 – BoG

Latest data from the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data for January 2024, shows that the country as of December 2023 had received $16.6 billion from its exports compared to the estimated 14 billion dollars it spent on importing goods for the same period.

This indicates an increase from the 14.9 billion dollars recorded for exports and 12.8 billion dollars for imports in November last year.

On a year-on-year basis, the value of total exports was however a decrease from the $17.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Per the data from the Central Bank, the difference between the country’s exports and imports within the period under review resulted in a positive trade balance of $2.6bn.

The positive trade balance accounted for 3.4% of GDP, an improvement on the 2.7% of GDP recorded in the month of November 2023.

Commodities such as gold and cocoa contributed $7.6bn and $2.1bn respectively to the total export value.

Oil exports accounted for $3.8bn of total exports value with other exports accounting for the remaining $3bn.

On the imports side, oil and non-oil imports accounted for $3.6bn and $7.7bn of total import value.

Growth in exports contributed to an increase in the country’s the gross international reserves which stood at $5.1bn at end-October 2023 from $4.9bn at end-September 2023.

Growth in gross international reserves led to a marginal increase in the country’s import cover from 2.3 months in September to 2.4 months in October.

Net International Reserves of the country however stands at $2.1bn, also a marginal increase from the $2bn recorded in September 2023.

Credit: Citi Business News