Gold Export gave Ghana the highest foreign earnings for the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the other major trading commodities.
According to the latest Bank of Ghana (BoG) Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data, Gold Export accrued a total amount of US$1.47 billion for the period March, 2020, representing a percentage increase of 2.5% from the previous year which stood at US$1.43 billion.
The mining sector, specifically Gold, seems to be doing well despite the coronavirus outbreak. There has been an increase in the price of gold, which is translating into higher earnings for producers and exporters.
However, it is anticipated that the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic would begin to show Gold Exports in the next ensuing months.
This may or may not impact on the prices of gold for April 2020 and the months after that.
Even though the April 2020 figures have not yet been concluded, it is worthy to note that total Gold Export earnings for Ghana within the same period in 2019 was US$1.95 billion.
Again, according to the BoG report, total commodity exports for the country in March 2020 stood at US$3.93 billion compared to the same period last year which recorded US$4.01 billion.
This also means that there has been a decline of about 2 percent in total export revenue for the country.
Other commodity export
Total Cocoa export for the period March 2020 was US$959.5 million, representing an increase of about 13.25 percent in the previous year’s figure which stood at US$ 832.4 billion.
Also, the BoG report shows that total oil exports for March 2020 amounted to US$874 billion declining from the US$1.05 bilion recorded within the same period in 2019.
Imports
The report indicates that total import declined by 11 percent to record an amount of US$2.99 billion relative to US$3.38 billion accrued last year.
Oil imports for the period March, 2020 plummet by 24.4 percent to record US$511 million in total import compared to the US$675.9 million worth of oil imported the previous year.
Non-oil imports, on the other hand, stood at $2.49 billion, representing a decline of about 7.8 percent when matched against the US$2.69 billion imported the same period in 2019.
Trade balance
Trade balance for the period March 2020 stands at 1.4 percent of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) relative to the one percent recorded in the same month in 2019.
Furthermore, the report showed that balance of payment (BOP) still remain at 0.3 percent of GDP for March this year as recorded in the same period in 2019.
In real times, the BoG report pegged overall BOP for March this year at US$1.48 billion as against the US$2.99 billion in 2019.
By Salifu B.B. Moro
