The Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data has revealed that Ghana had a trade surplus of $1.107 billion in 2021.
However, this is less than the $2.043 billion recorded in 2020, which is comparable to 1.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Exports for the period were anticipated to be $14.73 billion, while imports were estimated to be $13.62 billion, according to the data.
The decrease in the trade balance was partly due to the economy’s continued recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data also revealed that gold accounted for the majority of overall export value, at $5.08 billion in 2021, compared to $6.79 billion in 2020, when the price of gold on the global market soared.
In 2021, crude oil exports brought in $3.94 billion for the country compared with the $2.91 billion generated in 2020.
The strong performance of crude oil exports was due to increasing crude oil prices, notably in the second half of last year.
Imports
For imports, non-oil imports was estimated at $10.90 billion, whilst oil imports accounted for $2.71 billion.
Also, the current account balance as of December 2021 stood at a deficit of $2.49 billion, about -3.6 percent of GDP. This is higher than $2.13 billion recorded during the same period of last year.
The overall balance of payment however stood at $510.1 million in 2021, as against $377.5 million in 2020.
