Ghana's export earnings hit record US$22.4bn to August on higher gold prices

Pinned summary · as of 15:42

Ghana has earned a record US$22.4 billion from selling goods abroad as of August 2026, with higher gold prices doing much of the lifting, according to figures reported by Onua Online, The Ghana Report and Ghana Business News. The import bill also climbed over the period, yet exports pulled further ahead. Concern has meanwhile been raised about a reported halt to gold shipments by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).

What we know

• By August 2026, exports had brought in US$22.4 billion, the highest on record, and pricier gold was the main driver. In June 2026 the total had been US$18.2 billion.
• Cocoa sales abroad earned US$2.7 billion by August 2026, against US$2.4 billion a year earlier, while crude oil sales reached US$2.4 billion, compared with US$1.8 billion in August 2025.
• Spending on imports over the first eight months of 2026 reached US$13.5 billion, up from US$11.2 billion in the same months of 2025. The fuel import bill grew to US$4.7 billion (US$3.2 billion before), and non-oil purchases reached US$8.7 billion (US$7.9 billion before).
• Because exports grew faster than imports, Ghana ran a trade surplus of about US$8.8 billion.
• The country's international reserves fell during August, from US$12.94 billion down to US$11.04 billion, and then edged up to US$12.02 billion.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Reports do not agree on last year's comparison. Onua Online and The Ghana Report set the earlier-year export figure at US$11.1 billion and the prior surplus at US$7.6 billion, while Ghana Business News, citing the Bank of Ghana, gave US$17.97 billion for exports and US$6.69 billion for the surplus in August 2025.
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  Onua Online and The Ghana Report both said GoldBod has reportedly stopped exporting gold since August 2026, and Onua Online tied that to worries about the outlook. Neither report carries a statement from GoldBod, so the pause is not confirmed.
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  Analysts told both publications that the healthier trade balance could help the cedi and build up reserves. They also said the US Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates could weigh on gold prices in the months ahead. These are forecasts, not established outcomes.
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  Ghana Business News, using Bank of Ghana data, reported gold earnings of US$14.86 billion by August 2026 and said gold made up about two-thirds of export receipts. The Ghana Report quoted economist Professor Peter Quartey putting gold's share at about 60 or 61 per cent, so the exact share is unsettled.
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  Professor Quartey told The Ghana Report that Ghana leans heavily on imported fuel and gold exports and has little cushion against outside shocks. "Should gold prices tumble, or should anything happen to the international market, we are likely to suffer the consequences," he said. His warning has not been echoed elsewhere.
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  The Ghana Report said GoldBod, which was set up by Act 1140, the Ghana Gold Board Act of 2025, has since 1 September 2026 required Self-Financing Aggregators to refine gold doré at home before export, and that unrefined doré no longer gets export clearance. This has not been confirmed by other reports.
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  For the whole of 2025, The Ghana Report cited Bank of Ghana figures of US$31.11 billion in merchandise exports and a record US$13.66 billion trade surplus, with reserves covering 5.7 months of imports and the cedi up 40.7% against the dollar. Only this report carries the numbers.

Why it matters for Ghana

Gold and cocoa sales abroad bring in the dollars that Ghana uses to pay for fuel and other imports, so the export figures bear on the cedi and on prices at the pump and in the market. A bigger oil import bill and a dip in reserves in August show why households in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi watch these numbers. Any stoppage in gold shipments would matter to miners, traders and the wider economy, because gold supplies most of the country's export income.