Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Ernest Addison has announced that cocoa exports declined to US$2.2 billion, from US$2.8billion.
This he said reflected both prices and volumes of production.
Speaking during the 110th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press briefing in Accra on Monday, January 30, he said “Gold export increased by 30 percent to 6.6 billion US Dollars on the back of increased volumes from small-scale gold production.
“Cocoa exports however declined to $ 2.2 billion, from $ 2.8 billion reflecting both prices and volumes of production.
“Other exports including nontraditional exports reached 3.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 10.2 percent. The total import bill increased by 7 percent to 14.65 billion US Dollars in 2022 due to higher payments for oil and gas imports.”
He added, “of the total import bill, oil and gas mainly refined petroleum imports amounted to 4.7bn US dollars driven by higher prices compared to 2.7bn US Dollars in 2021 representing 71.3 percent annual growth.”
At the press conference, Dr Addison announced that the MPC has increased the policy rate to 28 percent.
This is up from the earlier rate of 27%.
The upward adjustment reflects the increasing rate of inflation which hit a record high of 54.1% in December last year.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana