Loading

You Are Here: Home » General News, Second Lead » Ghana’s oil import bill falls to 40.2%

Ghana’s oil import bill falls to 40.2%

Page last updated at Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:12 PM // Leave Your Comment

oil2Ghana’s oil import bill has declined in 2009 as compared to the bill in 2008, the Bank of Ghana has said.

At a press conference Friday November 20, 2009, governor of the central bank, Mr. Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said the oil import bill at the end of October 2009 has increased to US$ 1.3 billion, but compares with US$ 2.1 billion for the same period of 2008; and that is a significant annual decline of 40.2%.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur also said in the first ten months of 2009, the Gross International Reserves (GIR) of the Bank of Ghana grew from US$ 2.0 billion (1.8 months of import cover) to $2.6 billion (2.5 months of import cover) in October 2009.

The governor indicated that the monetary/fiscal policy framework of the central bank is working and gradually placing the economy back on a path of disinflation.

He said there are signs of stabilization in prices and in the foreign exchange market. Inflation is trending downwards and consumer price inflation has recorded four consecutive declines while core inflation is also on the decline.

“Indications are that inflation will continue to ease and fall within the upper part of the target range of 14.5 – 17.5 percent by the end of-December 2009,” he said. “Looking ahead, inflation is likely to return to the target range of 7-11 percent by the end of December 2010. The risks to inflation are associated with the recovery of global demand and the extent to which crude oil prices might rebound. Higher crude oil prices could translate to higher domestic prices at the pump and this could result in a slightly higher inflation profile,” he added.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

Email | Print This Story | Tweet This! |

Comments

Leave a Reply