The contribution of cocoa to Ghana’s export earnings has recorded a significant drop from $711 million to $508 million recorded in the same period last year accounting for some $203 million decline.
The commodity is however the third contributor to the country’s export gains according to the latest assessment of Ghana’s external sector developments.
The assesment shows that the country earned $2.8 billion from its major exports in the first two months of 2024.
On a year-on-year basis, however, the value of exports did not see any significant growth from the same $2.8 billion posted as of February the previous year.
The figure if compared to the US$ 2.5 billion the country spent on importing goods for the same period resulted in a trade surplus of about US$400 million.
Per the data from the Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data for March 2024, the positive trade balance accounted for 0.5 of GDP, which is a decline from the 1.1% of GDP recorded in February 2023.
Gold maintained its spot as the most dominant contributor to exports. It contributed $1.3 billion in exports.
It was a marginal increase from the $1 billion recorded same period last year.
Following closely were crude oil exports, which totalled $620 million in February 2024, compared to $551 million in February 2023.
On the imports side, oil imports fell from $674 million to $599 million. Non-oil imports also decreased from $1.9 billion to $1.3 billion.
The growth in gross international reserves sustained the country’s import cover at 2.8 months.
Net International Reserves of the country stand at $3.5 billion, a marginal increase from the $2.6 billion recorded in February 2023.
Newsdesk report