The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) is warning about the overdependence on a few primary commodities, saying, it makes Ghana vulnerable to volatile commodity prices.

In its 2022 State of the Economy Report, the economic and policy institution called for modification of value chain structures to add value to primary products toward adapting to such price volatility.

“Dependence on few primary commodity exports (mainly gold and cocoa) makes Ghana vulnerable to volatile commodity prices. Value chain structures must be modified to add value to primary products toward adapting to such price volatility”.

ISSER also advocated for domestic initiatives aimed at increasing productivity and improving output in key primary sectors and value chains.

It stressed that the government needs to commit to the International Monetary Fund’s induced fiscal consolidation efforts to improve the business environment to draw investors.

Ghana’s trade surplus surged from $1.107 billion in 2021 to $2.873 billion in 2022.

Merchandise export value increased by 18.7% from $14.736 billion in 2021 to $17.494 billion in 2022.

But imports reached $14.621 billion in 2022, an uptick of 7.3% over the previous year’s $13.628 billion in 2021.

The share of oil imports in total imports increased from 19.95% to about 31.64% between 2021 and 2022.

Between 2021 and 2022, export revenue from cocoa decreased by 19.3% while that of timber and minerals increased by 1.4% and 30.1%, respectively.