Ghana’s total earnings from export have been hit hard by the COVID-19 shocks, this is according to the latest report by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The figures from the BoG indicate that earnings declined by US$2.5 billion as compared to what was realized during the same period last year.

According to the report, what the country secured in the first two months of the year is about three hundred million dollars short of what Ghana got in the first two months of 2020.

It can be attributed to a decline in prices of commodities on the international market like Gold and Cocoa that are yet to pick up from pre-pandemic levels. As a result of lockdowns and economies yet to open up fully because of the COVID restrictions.

The immediate impact of this will be on the international reserves which will affect the number of hard currencies available to finance our imports if the trend should continue.

This may also not be good for the cedis fortunes of firm stability going forward as these earnings are needed to act as a buffer to firmly stabilize the Ghana cedi and also at the time that we need these funds badly to finance deficit and rising interest payments, this can be described as worrying.

The country’s international reserves according to the Bank of Ghana has also declined to 8.7 billion dollars compared to 10 billion dollars in February 2020. This will cover 4.2 months of import cover, another development that could be described as not so good when it comes to stabilizing the economy in these COVID times.

The country also spent about 2.2 billion dollars to finance its import compared to the same period last year. This shows that imports are going up by some 202 million dollars compared to the same period last year.

But despite these challenges the country still recorded a trade balance of 339 million ending February this year which can be described as somehow comforting. Business and consumer confidence is still struggling to pick up strongly as data from BoG shows that there is a slight below compared to 2020.