Adnan Adams Mohammed
Ghana’s commodities, gold, oil, cocoa and timber, recorded mixed performance last year. ,
According to the Bank of Ghana, these were influenced by COVID-19 impact on the global market. It noted that crude oil prices declined by 22.9 per cent year-on-year in December 2020, driven mainly by weak demand with the prices averaging US$50.2 per barrel, compared with US$65.2 per barrel a year ago.
Gold prices, on the other hand, went up by 25.4 percent to an average of US$1,857.2 per fine ounce, strongly supported by accommodative monetary policy, increased uncertainty, and the global economic slowdown due to the pandemic. But, cocoa prices shot up by 2.5% on a year-on-year basis to average US$2,581.3 per tonne in December 2020
“These commodity price developments impacted the trade balance”, Governor of the Central bank, Dr Ernest Addison said at its first Monetary Policy Committee press briefing this year.
Adding that, “Total exports contracted by 7.8 per cent year-on-year to US$14.5 billion in 2020, driven mainly by a significant decline of US$1.6 billion in crude oil export receipts on the back of low prices. Gold and cocoa export earnings on the other hand, went up by 9.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, due to favourable prices and production volumes”.
“Total imports went down by US$974 million to US$12.4 billion, underpinned by significant declines in both oil and non-oil imports. Consequently, the trade balance recorded a lower surplus of US$2.0 billion (3.0 per cent of GDP) in 2020, compared with US$2.3 billion (3.4 per cent of GDP) in 2019”.
