Accra, March 26, - Ghana recorded a provisional trade surplus of
$584.5 million for the first two months of 2018 on the back of higher export
receipts from crude oil.
This compares with a trade
surplus of US$494.3 million recorded over the same period in 2017.
Speaking at a press conference on
the development in the economy on Monday, Dr Ernest Addison, the Governor of
the Bank of Ghana said the trade surplus was expected to translate into a
current account surplus in the first quarter of 2018, and further into a strong
external position.
He said Gross International
Reserves stood at $6.9 billion, representing 3.8 months of import cover as at
March 20, 2018 compared to US$7.6 billion or 4.3 months of import cover as at
December 2017.
Dr Addison explained that the
drawdown in international reserves reflected seasonal foreign exchange flows,
planned sovereign bond coupon payments and Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA)
related payments.
On the international market, the
Governor said prices of Ghana’s main primary exports had rebounded over the
first two months of 2018.
Crude oil prices have gained the
most since the fourth quarter of 2017 reaching US$69.1 per barrel in January
2018, but has since moderated on the back of increased production and rising US
shale output.
Gold prices have also performed
better, largely driven by a weak US dollar and steady purchase and holdings of
gold by central banks.
Following some price depression
in 2017, on account of excess supply, cocoa prices are gradually on the mend,
driven by strong grind data from Europe, and renewed concerns of adverse
short-term weather patterns across the West African sub-region.
Touching on the banking sector,
Dr Addison said the ongoing regulatory reforms in the banking sector were to
promote stability of the financial system and to properly position it to
support the economic growth agenda.
He said the banking sector as a
whole continued to be liquid, profitable and solvent with some modest gains in
asset quality.
However, there remained few
vulnerabilities and the Bank of Ghana expects banks to continue to implement
their recapitalisation plans in line with the new minimum capital requirement.
He said the total asset base of
banks increased to GH¢95.1 billion in February 2018 indicating an annual growth
of 13.7 percent compared with the 15.3 percent recorded in December 2017.
The asset growth was mainly
funded by deposits which went up by 12.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The industry’s average Capital
Adequacy Ratio (CAR) improved to 19.2 percent in February 2018, reflecting
efforts by banks to recapitalise.
Dr Addison said although the
quality of loan portfolio remains a concern, the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs)
ratio remained unchanged at 21.6 percent since December 2017 as banks continued
to clean their balance sheets.
However, adjusting for loan loss
provision, the NPLs ratio stood at 10.9 percent in February.
Provisional data on government
operations indicated an overall budget deficit of 6.0 percent of GDP in 2017,
against the target of 6.3 percent.
Total revenue and grants was 20.0
percent of GDP, below the target of 21.3 percent and total expenditures,
including arrears clearance, was 26.0 percent of GDP below the budgeted
estimate of 27.7 percent.
The total public debt declined
from 73.1 percent of GDP in December 2016 to 69.8 percent of GDP (GH¢142.5
billion) at the end of 2017.
Of the total, domestic debt was
GH¢66.7 billion and external debt was GH¢75.8 billion.
The maturity profile of domestic
debt showed an increase in longer-dated instruments in line with Government’s
debt management strategy particularly, the re-profiling strategy.
By end December 2017, the share
of short-dated instruments in total domestic debt had declined to 18.0 percent
from 37.6 percent in December 2016, while the share of medium-term instruments
rose to 63.1 percent from 38.1 percent.
GNA
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