Ghana Receives $6,004 Million from Minerals Export

Gold bars

Accra, Ghana, November 26, 2018//-Data from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed that proceeds from the country’s export of minerals increased by 19 percent to $6,004 million in 2017 from $5,060 million in 2016.

The upturn in mineral export receipts was due to broad-based increase in realised revenue from the West African country’s four mineral export commodities namely, gold, diamond, manganese, and bauxite.

According to the 2017 Annual Report of the Ghana Chambers of Mines, “Receipts from the export of gold increased from $4,919 million in 2016 to $5,786 million in 2017, representing a growth of 17 percent”.

Similarly, revenue from the export of diamonds improved from $2.05 million in 2016 to $2.81 million in 2017 while that of manganese increased from $100.22 million to $164.54 million within the same period.

The report was quick to add that; “revenues from the shipment of bauxite increased $38.70 million in 2016 to $50.86 million in 2017”.

The 2017 mineral revenue outturn also implies that gold accounted for 96 percent of mineral export revenue in 2017, which was not significantly different from its share of 97 percent in 2016.

Against this backdrop of strong export revenue performance, the share of mineral receipts in total merchandise export in 2017 was 43 percent, the report said.

Although this represents a 2 percent dip in the previous year’s share, it compares favourably with the shares of the country’s other major export commodities-cocoa, and oil.

Proceeds from the export of cocoa and oil accounted for 19 percent and approximately 23 percent of merchandise export revenue in 2017.

In essence, receipts from the export of gold were slightly higher than the sum of receipts from cocoa and oil in 2017, making it the leading source of foreign exchange from the export of commodities.

The improved mineral export revenue outturn in 2017 also had significant impact on the country’s balance of payment (BOP) and Gross International Reserves.

“Together with the growth in revenue from other export commodities and decline in imports, the increase in mineral receipts contributed to an improvement in the trade account balance from a deficit of $1,733 million in 2016 to a surplus of $1,067 million in 2017”.

This and other favourable developments in the external sector culminated in a surplus BOP of $1,091 million at the end of 2017, translating into an improvement in the country’s Gross International Reserve position, the report noted.

According to the BoG, the total Gross International Reserve increased from 3.5 months of import cover in 2016 to 4.3 months cover of import cover in 2017.

The substantial expansion in the Gross International Reserves partly contributed to the deceleration in the country’s exchange rate. The cedi (Ghana’s currency) depreciated against the US Dollar by 4.9 percent in 2017 relative to 9.2 percent in 2016.

African Eye Report

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