There was further improvement in Ghana's trade balance over the first ten months of the year, "partly reflecting the generally favourable commodity prices alongside import compression", the Bank of Ghana has said. 

The trade account indicated a higher surplus of US$2.1 billion for the first ten months of 2023, relative to a trade surplus of US$1.8 billion in the same period of 2022, the central bank said at its last monetary policy committee meeting on Monday, 27 November 2023.

"This was driven by a greater reduction in imports relative to exports.

Total imports declined by 8.9 per cent to US$11.4 billion, driven by both non-oil imports and oil and gas imports". 

"Non-oil imports were estimated at US$7.7 billion, down by 9.3 per cent, while oil and gas imports also declined by 8.1 per cent to US$3.7 billion", Governor Ernest Addison reported.

He said merchandise exports also declined by 6.4 per cent to US$13.4 billion and this was weighed down by crude oil exports and cocoa products. 

Of the total, gold export earnings increased by 13.9  per cent to US$6.1 billion benefiting from both volume and prices increases. 

Cocoa beans exports also increased by 6.1 per cent to US$1.1 billion on the back of higher volumes.

In contrast, crude oil exports decreased sharply by 33.5 per cent to US$3.1 billion mainly driven by reduced volumes while ‘other’ exports, including non-traditional exports, decreased marginally by 1.1 per cent to an estimated value of US$2.6 billion.