By Elorm Desewu
The Bank of Ghana would in the next month begin to export the 600 kilograms of Doré gold that the central bank has acquired which would become part of the country’s Gross International Reserves.
“So far, we have bought over 600 kilograms of Doré gold but this gold has to be refined to a very high standard before it can qualify as reserve assets and the Bank is in the process of fulfilling all the due diligence requirements that the certified refineries in the world look out for.
We are quite sure that, in the next month or two, we would be able to export the Doré gold that we have acquired and once that is refined, it could become part of our gross reserves”, disclosed by the Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison.
“We have to export the Doré gold to be refined because the refinery in Ghana is not LBMA certified and so would not qualify the gold as a central bank reserve asset. This is the only reason why we, for now, have to export the gold in that form and refine it outside. I know that the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Finance are working at getting this LBMA certification for the refineries in Ghana”, he said.
The Gross International Reserves at the end of February 2022 was US$9,547.96 million, providing cover for 4.3 months of imports. The reserve level compares with the end-December 2021 position of US$9,695.22 million, equivalent to 4.4 months of import cover.
The trade account continued to remain in a surplus, albeit declining. For the first two months of 2022, the trade surplus amounted to US$404.9 million, lower than a surplus of US$432.69 million for the corresponding period of 2021.
The decline in the trade balance was mainly due to a higher import growth relative to exports growth. Imports grew by 7.9 percent year on year to US$2.3 billion. The increase in imports was driven mainly by oil imports that rose by 80.1 percent with non-oil imports decreasing by 5.53 percent. With regard to exports, earnings grew by 5.5 percent to US$2.7 billion. Improved earnings from crude oil, aluminium alloys and other exports, including non-traditional exports, boosted exports performance notwithstanding some decline in gold and cocoa receipts.
