Trade surplus hits $1.3bn in first four months of 2022
Provisional data made available by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) indicates that trade surplus for the first four months of this year hit $1.3bn.
Compared to the $778m trade surplus recorded same period last year, this marks an increase of $522m.
According to the Bank of Ghana, favourable commodities price trends in the last few months positively impacted the trade account as export inflows outweighed imports leasing to the $1.3bn trade surplus.
The improvement in export earnings was attributed to crude oil and non-traditional exports. Crude oil export receipts recorded significant growth of 61.0 percent to US$1.9 billion, due to price effects, while gold exports improved by 3.6 percent, also supported by price effects.
Non-traditional export receipts crossed the US$1.0 billion mark in the review period and contributed significantly to the trade surplus.
These developments far outweighed the 7.7 percent growth in total oil imports in the review period, on the back of compressed non-oil imports.
The trade surplus was however, offset by investment income outflows and net services payments, resulting in a current account deficit of US$128.15 million (0.2 percent of GDP) for the first quarter of the year, representing a marginal improvement from the current account deficit of US$197.0 million (0.2 percent of GDP) recorded in the first quarter of 2021.
The capital and financial account, however, recorded some significant outflows from net portfolio reversals and net private capital outflows, which resulted in an overall balance of payments deficit of US$934.46 million for the first quarter of 2022, compared with a deficit of US$429.93 million, same time last year.
Gross International Reserves (GIR), at the end of April 2022, stood at US$8.34 billion, equivalent to 3.7 months of import cover. This compares with US$9.70 billion, equivalent to 4.3 months of import cover at end-December 2021.
Meanwhile, the stock of public debt increased to 78.0 percent of GDP (GH¢391.9 billion) at the end of March 2022, compared with 76.6 percent of GDP (GH¢351.8 billion) at the end of December 2021.
Of the total debt stock, domestic debt was GH¢189.9 billion (37.8 percent of GDP), while the external debt was GH¢201.9 billion (40.2 percent of GDP).
Provisional data for the first quarter of 2022, indicated an overall broad fiscal deficit (cash, excluding energy sector payments, financial sector clean-up costs) of 2.6 percent of GDP, against the programmed target of 2.3 percent of GDP.
The corresponding primary balance for the period was a deficit of GH¢2.3 billion (0.5 percent of GDP), against a deficit target of GH¢1.4 billion (0.3 percent of GDP).
Over the period, total revenue and grants amounted to GH¢16.7 billion (3.3 percent of GDP), below the projected GH¢19.3 billion (3.8 percent of GDP). Total expenditures amounted to GH¢27.0 billion (5.4 percent of GDP), below the programmed target of GH¢30.5 billion (6.1 percent of GDP).
