Ghana’s Gross International Reserves dipped to $8.34 billion in April 2022, from $9.70 billion recorded in December 2021, data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed.

This is equivalent to 3.7 months of import cover.

In January 2022, the country’s Gross International Reserves stood at $9.76 billion, about 4.4 months of import cover.

It further dropped to $9.54 billion (4.2 months of import cover) in February 2022 and $8.81 billion (3.9 months of import cover) in March 2022.

According to the figures on External Sector Developments, the Heritage and Stabilisation Funds in April 2022 stood at $939 million. This is compared with  $971.4 million in December 2021.

Ghana records $1.33bn trade surplus in April 2022

Ghana recorded a trade surplus of $1.33 billion in the first four months of 2022, higher than the $1.107 billion recorded in the entire 2021.

This is approximately 1.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to the Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data, total exports in the 4-months of 2021 was $6.10 billion. This is against total imports of $4.77 billion.

The increase in the trade balance is due to the increase in the price of crude oil on the world market and improve gold production in the country.

The data further revealed that gold dominated the total value of exports, recording $1.87 billion in April 2022, followed by oil which registered $1.85 billion in April 2022.