GHANA’S companies sold fewer products overseas for the period January to September,2014 but the trade deficit narrowed because of a big decline in gold and crude oil imports.
According to the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) report, total exports for the nine month period decreased from US$10.4 billion in 2013 to US$10.1 billion in the review period due to significant reductions in all the country’s major exports except cocoa beans and products which increased by 11.4 per cent during the period to US$1.9 billion.
Exports of gold of US$3.4 billion for the period, crude oil of US$2.9 billion and other non-traditional exports of US$1.9 billion recorded decreases of 9.2 per cent, 1.7 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively, the Governor of the BoG, Dr Henry Wampah disclosed.
He however noted: “The trade balance for the nine period registered a deficit of US$681.3 million (1.8% of GDP) compared to a deficit of US$2.7 billion (5.6% of GDP) for the same period in 2013, as the decline in imports continue to outpace the slowdown in exports”.
Conversely, Ghana’s total imports for January to September also declined by 17.8 percent year-on-year to US$10.7 billion resulting from 22.8 per cent decline in non-oil imports partially mitigated by a 2.2 per cent increase in oil imports.
At the end of October 2014, gross international reserves stood at US$5.9 billion representing a build-up of US$314.2 million from the end of December 2013, sufficient to provide 3.4 months of import cover.
This has since improved to US$6.6 billion as at November 7, 2014 equivalent to 3.8 months of import cover, Dr Wampah noted.
Developments in the foreign exchange markets indicate a generally weaker domestic currency in 2014. For the first ten months of the year, the cedi cumulatively depreciated by 31.2 percent against the US dollar in the interbank market, compared to 7.4 percent in the corresponding period last year.
African Eye News.com
