The Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that Ghana achieved a trade surplus of at least US$1.1 billion, the first in the past 20 years.
Presenting the 2019 Budget and Economic Policy of the government in Parliament, Mr. Ofori-Atta stated that Ghana’s trade position with the rest of the world has strengthened due to the government’s interventions and policies in some critical sectors of the economy.
Mr. Ofori-Atta pointed out that the trade account recorded a deficit of US$1.4 billion in June 2016, improved significantly to a surplus for the first time in two decades, to US$1.1 billion as of June 2017 and another surplus of US$1.1 billion as at June 2018.
Reading the 2019 Budget on the theme: “Putting Ghana Back to Work”, the Finance Minister explained that the country’s Gross International Reserves (GIR) increased from $6.2 billion in December 2016 to US$7.3 billion as of June 2018.
He further pointed out that Ghana’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio which increased from 32 percent in 2008 to 73.1 percent in 2016, declined for the first time since 2007 from 73.1 percent of GDP in 2016 to 67.3 percent in June 2018.
Mr. Ofori-Atta indicated that for the first time in almost a decade, Standard and Poor (S&P) upgraded Ghana’s Sovereign Credit rating from (B-) to (B) with a stable outlook, in September 2018.
He added that these are remarkable achievements which, the government is determined to build on, in order to improve the lives of Ghanaians.
Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (S&P ) is an American financial services company.
It is known for its stock market indices.
S&P is one of the big three credit-rating agencies, which also include Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings.
Trade Surplus
Trade Surplus (TS) is the amount by which the total value of a country’s export exceeds the total cost of import.
Trade Surplus represents a net inflow of Domestic Currency from foreign market.
Trade Surplus is the opposite of Trade Deficit, which represents a net inflow and occurs when the results of trade balance is negative.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
