Dr. Ernest Addison
Ghana’s major exports (cocoa, gold, and crude oil), recorded impressive gains on the international commodities market in April 2024, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison has said.
He indicated that cocoa prices continued to increase, reaching $10,116.9 per tonne in April 2024, from $4,235.60 per tonnes in December 2023, representing a year-to-date gain of 138.9%.
“Crude oil prices increased by 15.2% on a year-to-date basis to $89.00 per barrel in April, compared to the $77.26 per barrel in December 2023. Gold prices also increased by 14.7% at the beginning of the year to $2,334.2 per fine ounce,” he said.
Dr. Addison said this at the media engagement in Accra.
According to him, the balance of trade recorded a lower surplus of $744.3 million for the first four months of the year, compared to a surplus of $1.39 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
“Total exports increased by 4.9% to $5.83 billion driven mainly by significant growth in gold exports and a modest increase in crude oil exports.
Dr. Addison further noted that earnings from gold exports increased by 37.0% to $2.97 billion, due to higher volumes of exports from small-scale gold production. The value of crude oil exports, in comparison, increased by 9.4% to $1.27 billion, on the back of both volume and price increases.
“Exports of cocoa, both beans and products, dropped by 49.0% to $599.3 million. Other exports, including non-traditional exports, also decreased by 6.0% to $981.8 million,” Dr. Addison added.
“Total imports increased by 22.2% to $5.08 billion, driven mainly by non-oil imports which went up by 31.2% to $3.53 billion, while oil imports increased by 5.6% to $1.55 billion.
“Provisional data for the first quarter of the year resulted in a current account surplus of $372.12 million. This represented a 40.8% decline from the surplus of $629.01 million recorded in the first quarter of 2023. The lower surplus was driven mainly by higher imports, and increased income payments.
Net income payment was $727 million for the first quarter of 2024, compared to net income payment of $508 million in 2023,” he noted.
He continued that remittances inflows increased sharply to $1.44 billion, compared with net inflows of $980 million over the same comparative period as also the capital and financial account recorded a net outflow of $113 million, lower than a net outflow of $998.40 million recorded in the same period in 2023.
The reduced capital outflows were largely driven by significant inflows from the IMF and World Bank, as well as improved FDI flows to the economy.
These developments resulted in an overall balance of payment surplus of $84.74 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to a deficit of US$586.99 million in 2023.
By Samuel Boadi