Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that Ghana achieved a trade surplus of at least US$1.1billion, the first in the past 20 years.
“Ghana’s trade position with the rest of the world has strengthened.
“The trade account recorded a deficit of US$1.4 billion in June 2016, improved significantly to a surplus for the first time in two decades, to US$1.1 billion as of June 2017 and another surplus of US$1.1 billion as at June 2018,” he said during the presentation of the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government on the theme: “Putting Ghana Back to Work”.
According to him, the country’s gross international reserves increased from $6.2 billion in December 2016 (3.5 months of imports) to US$7.3 billion as of June 2018 (3.9 months of imports).
He further pointed out that Ghana’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio which increased from 32 per cent in 2008 to 73.1 percent in 2016, declined for the first time since 2007 from 73.1 per cent of GDP in 2016 to 67.3 per cent in June 2018, and for the first time in almost a decade, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) upgraded Ghana’s Sovereign Credit rating from (B-) to (B) with a stable outlook, in September 2018.
“These are remarkable achievements which we are determined to build on in order to improve the lives of Ghanaians,” Ken Ofori Atta added.
