The value of Ghana’s total exports increased to about 9 billion dollars in June 2022, from the 7.6 billion dollars recorded during the same time period in 2021.

This is contained in the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data for July 2022. The report also shows an increase in total imports from about 6.7 billion dollars in June 2021 to about 7.5billion dollars in June 2022.

The latest figures by the Bank of Ghana indicate that the country received 9 billion dollars from her exports in June 2022 compared to the estimated 7.5 billion dollars it spent on importing goods for the same period in 2021.

While the total exports represent a growth of 18.4 percent between June 2021 and the same period in 2022, total imports also saw an increase of 11.9 percent within the one year period.

The Central Bank’s summary of economic and financial data indicates that Ghana recorded a trade surplus of 1.43 billion dollars in the first half of year, higher than the 886 million dollars recorded during the same period last year.

The country as at June 2022, made 7.2 billion dollars in export revenue from cocoa, oil and gold altogether. This represents 1 billion dollars more compared to the 6.2 billion dollars the country earned for the same period in 2021.

A look at the data shows that of all the commodities within the total exports bracket, gold dominated recording 3.01 billion in June 2022, followed by crude oil which registered 2.83 billion dollars.

Of the amount, revenue from oil exports went up by over 64 percent between June 2021 and the same period in 2022, as the country raked in 2.83 billion dollars up from the 1.75 million dollars recorded in the same period last year.

The performance of the oil export so far in 2022 is as a result of the higher price of the commodity on the international market, according to some stakeholders.

Despite recording a higher value, gold recorded the second highest growth of about 13 percent in percentage terms. Export revenue from the mineral went up from 2.66 billion dollars to 3.01 billion dollars within the one year period.

The impressive performance of gold, for many stakeholders, is largely due to a combination of the improvement in price and expansion in output by both the small and large scale producers plus government’s decision to reduce the withholding tax on gold exports from 3 percent to 1.5 percent.

However, exports from cocoa declined in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. Revenue from Cocoa exports dropped by over 17 percent between June 2021 and the same period in 2022, as the country raked in 1.38 billion dollars down from the 1.78 million dollars recorded in the same period last year.
Some stakeholders attribute the decline in the cocoa exports to the fall in the global consumption rate among other factors. This has caused a fall in the export of the raw material.

Total imports however stood at 7.56 billion dollars. This was dominated by oil import of 5. 28 billion dollar.

On imports, revenue from oil imports went up by over 341.6 percent between June 2021 and the same period in 2022, as the country raked in 5.28 billion dollars up from the 1.2 million dollars recorded in the same period last year.

But non-oil imports such as food and other consumables saw a drop by 58.19 between the period under review as the country raked in 2.2 billion dollars down from the 5.5 million dollars recorded in the same period last year.