Ghana hit by fall in oil, gold prices

The Ghanaian government says it has recorded significant drop in revenue in the 2015 fiscal year, due to the dip in the prices of its major exports. According to the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper government’s revenue from January to September 2015 was estimated at $7.750.8 million but dropped by $2.312.1 million.
Presenting the 2016 budget statement before the Parliament, the Finance Minister attributed the short-fall in revenue for the period under review to the plunge in the prices of its major exports and fall in production. “Falling commodity prices- gold, cocoa and oil coupled with decreased production of all the major export commodities resulted in a low turn-out in exports,” he explained.
“The average realized price of oil decreased significantly by 48.8 percent to $54.9 per barrel while volume exported also decreased by 2.0 percent to 26.7 million barrels during the period,” he explained.
Terkper added that income from gold also dipped significantly to $2445.2 million compared to $3,369.3 for the corresponding period of 2014. ”The average realized price dropped by 8.2 percent to $1,181.6 per fine ounce while the volume exported decreased by 21.0 percent to 2.1 million fine ounces,” he further said.
The minister explained that  Cocoa did not fare better because of falling production level while earnings from cocoa beans totaled $1,340.4 million.