Ghana’s trade flow increases mainly driven by upward price changes rather than increases in output

The Govt Statistician, Prof Samuel Annim (right) launching the Ghana 2023 Trade Report in Accra on Thursday, May 30, 2024

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) for the first time has released Export and Import Price Indices (XMPI) also known as the Unit Value Indices which measure changes over time in the relative price of exported and imported products versus the quantities of exports and imports of these commodities. The XMPI reveal that general prices for export commodities on average increased by 20.4 percent between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, while prices for imported commodities increased by 11.5 percent. This indicates that Ghana’s trade flow increases have been mainly driven by upward price changes rather than increases in output.

The XMPI, which were computed using administrative data from the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, are featured in the maiden quarterly trade statistics newsletter released by GSS on 30th May 2024. The quarterly trade statistics newsletter is being institutionalised by the Statistical Service to routinely provide updated statistics on trade to support informed decision-making. The newsletter indicated that the trade surplus in Q1 2024 was GH₵11.5 billion, which is more than twice the value recorded for Q1 2023 (GH₵4.5 billion). The first quarter of 2024 also recorded the lowest export value of cocoa products since 2021: export value of cocoa products in Q1 2024 decreased to US$592.2 million relative to the average (US$825.8 million) for first quarters of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The 2023 Annual Trade Report was released on 30th May 2024. The report is the third trade report to be released by the Statistical Service in the past year following the 2022 Trade Vulnerability Report and the 2023 Mid-Year Report on Trade. The report indicated that the nominal trade deficit of GH₵ 4.8 billion recorded in 2022 was reversed to a trade surplus of 2023 GH₵ 5.3 billion.

Compared to 2022 gold exports became more important, increasing from GH₵54.1 billion to GH₵84.4 billion, while mineral fuels and oils decreased from GH₵ 43.7 billion to GH₵44.6 billion. On the import side, Asia’s share of imports (41.3%) surpassed Europe (37.3%), with China emerging as Ghana’s largest import partner with GH₵33.9 billion.

The 2023 Annual Trade Report, the Q1 2024 Quarterly Newsletter, and the Export and Import Price Indices (XMPI) Technical Manual are available to download from www.statsghana.gov.gh. Trade statistics can also be downloaded directly from the GSS StatsBank.

About the Ghana Statistical Service

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) provides comprehensive, reliable, quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistical information to guide national development as stipulated in Section 3 of the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003). The organisation’s vision is to be a trusted provider of official statistics for good governance and its mission being the efficient collection, production, management, and dissemination of quality Official Statistics based on international standards, using competent and motivated staff for evidence-based decision-making, in support of national development.

The Statistical Service produces monthly and quarterly data on important economic indicators such as Consumer Inflation, Producer Inflation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GSS also regularly generates periodic population, housing, demographic and economic data at the locality, district, and national levels from routine surveys and censuses. The statistics generated by GSS are utilised by a wide cross-section of users including the public sector, businesses, academia, civil society organisations and development partners.

The GSS StatsBank is an innovative and user-friendly results dissemination method that allows users to generate disaggregated statistics, and customised tables and maps at no cost. The StatsBank is currently a repository for macroeconomic indicators, trade statistics, the 2010 and 2021 Population and Housing Censuses, the 2017 Ghana Census of Agriculture and the 2022/2023 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey.