Public Agenda (Accra)

Ghana: Country's Trade Deficit Drops in First Half of the Year

Ghana's trade balance amounted to a deficit of US$955.8 million, for the first six months of 2009, compared to a deficit of US$2,155.0 million recorded at the end of June 2008.

Presenting the mid-year review and supplementary budget to Parliament, on Tuesday, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor said total exports amounted to

US$3,003.8 million, compared with US$2,845.8 million during the corresponding period of 2008.

Receipts from cocoa beans and products amounted to US$1,061.0 million, an increase of 16.6 percent over what was recorded during the corresponding period of 2008.

Similarly, total receipts from gold exports for the first half of the year amounted to US$1,213.9 million, indicating a marginal increase of 1.2 percent over US$1,199.2 million for the same period of 2008.

The growth in gold exports was on the back of a marginal increase of 2.0 percent in volume, on year-on-year basis, to 1,351,798 fine ounces.

Dr Duffuor said total merchandised imports amounted to US$3,872.4 million for the first half of 2009 compared to US$5,000.9 million in 2008, indicating a decline of 22.5 percent.

The value of oil imports during the first half of 2009 amounted to US$449.6 million compared with US$1,326.5 million during the first half of 2008.

The value of total non-oil imports for the first half of the year 2009 amounted to US$3,425.8 million compared with US$3,674.4 million for the same period in 2008, representing a decline of 6.8 percent.

The Minister said remittances to private individuals amounted to US$728.3 million, compared with US$822.8 million for the same period in 2008 due to the effects of the global credit crunch.

The overall current account registered a surplus of US$125.9 million, compared to a deficit of US$1,449.0 million registered during the same period in 2008.

By the end of June 2009, gross international reserves totalled US$1,705.2 million, enough to cover 1.9 months of imports of goods and services and almost reaching the target of 2.0 months of imports cover set for 2009.

Dr Duffuor said despite the very difficult economic situation inherited in January 2009, the government had achieved all the notable feats within six months.

These notable achievements have come about not by accident but by the prudent macroeconomic policies being pursued by Government, he said. GNA


Copyright © 2009 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments 1 to 1 of 1 Post a comment

  • upliftdarace_144
    Aug 28 2009, 13:04

    Dear Readers , There is a climate in America and the financial world that secretly has been

    "cooking the books" while they rob us. For example most financial information that is

    reported only focuses on "The Budget ". A Budget is the amount of money we would

    need to run our household on a specific time schedule (e.g. weekly budget, monthly

    budget, yearly budget ).

    When they tell us they have a "Budget Deficit ", they are actually saying they don't have

    enough money for the specific period the Budget is supposed to cover. There is a more

    complete financial picture that many of us are kept from seeing. This picture is called "

    THE COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT ".

    People like WALTER BURIEN & ALEX JONES exposed the schemes that have been

    going on since 1945 in America alone !!! For more information do a search using

    " The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Exposed "..On YouTube Alex Jones &

    Walter Burien share a documentary that they did in the 1990s.

    [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=The+Comprehensive +Annual+Financial+Report+Exposed+]

    MATTHEW 10:26 DON’T BE AFRAID OF THEM, FOR THERE IS NOTHING COVERED THAT WON’T BE REVEALED AND THERE IS NOTHING HIDDEN THAT WON’T BE REVEALED.

    Make a Habit Of Praying Twice a Day (Sunset / Sunrise). Have A Daily Prayer, Weekly Prayer , Monthly Prayer, even Yearly Prayer ; keeping persons, organizations and causes in mind that you’d like to pray for at these intervals of time ( Daily-Weekly-Monthly-Yearly).

    Some prayer list suggestions –

    (Daily Prayer List ) -

    Christian & Natural Family -

    TOP-PRIORITY Persons, Causes & Oragnizations

    Weekly Prayer List

    MID-LEVEL Persons, Causes & Oragnizations

    (Monthly Prayer List) - Persons, Causes & Oragnizations

    Yearly Prayer List

    LOWER LEVEL - Persons, Causes & Oragnizations

    [God Bless You Readers To Want To Know And Seek To Know The Truth]

    The Swine Flu Vaccination Hoax - Explained URL – [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbFxV_C8Yw4 ]

    [Check Out :

    3) Who Brought The Slaves To America ? URL = [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuzhnKy63io ] Or [http://wideeyecinema.com/?p=911]

    [

    [http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com] / [http://alexjonesringtones.net/]

    WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS ! BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

    - Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]