Claim: Ghana’s trade balance in 2016 was -2.3% and moved to 4.6% in 2024
Source: Stephen Amoah, MP for Nhyiaeso Constituency
Verdict: Partly true
Researched by Nusrat Essah
The Member of Parliament for the Nhyiaeso Constituency, Stephen Amoah, during the ministerial vetting on January 23, 2025, claimed Ghana’s trade balance in 2016 was -2.3% and increased to 4.6% in 2024.
In his question to the Minister-designate for Trade, Agribusiness, and Industry, he said: “2016, Ghana’s trade balance was -2.3, as of the end of last year, which is the record we have, it has moved to 4.6%.” (watch from 9 minutes:45 seconds to 10 minutes:05 seconds).
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This fact-check report seeks to verify the claim.
Fact-Check
To verify this claim, Ghana Fact reviewed data from the Bank of Ghana‘s (BOG) Summary of Economic and Financial Data, as well as the 2017 budget from the Ministry of Finance.
According to the BOG’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data published in January 2017, Ghana recorded a trade balance of US$1689.2 million which is -4.0% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of December 2016.
Further checks from the Ministry of Finance’s 2017 budget statement and economic policy confirmed a trade balance of -4.0 at the end of 2016.
Fig 1: Screenshot from BOG’s Economic and financial summary, January 2017
Fig 2: Screenshot from 2017 budget statement
As at the time this claim was made, the BOG’s latest summary of Economic and Financial data published in November 2024, indicates that as of October 2024, Ghana’s trade balance was US$3850.5 million equivalent to 4.6% of GDP.
Fig 3: Screenshot from BOG’s Economic and financial summary, November 2024
From the findings, Ghana recorded a trade balance of -4.0% at the end of 2016 and not -2.3% as claimed. This means he understated the fact.
However, at the end of October 2024, Ghana’s trade balance for 2024 was 4.6% according to both the BoG and Ministry of Finance’s data.
The BoG recently released the January 2025 Summary of Economic and Financial Data after the claim has been made. From the report, Ghana’s trade balance at the end of December 2024 is 5.9%
GhanaFact reached out to Stephen Amoah for clarification and he stated that his source was the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
When presented with screenshots of the figures from our sources, he acknowledged the differences, saying working with numbers is a bit complex but he will send the data we shared to his team for further verification.
He maintained that his broader point remained valid, stating: “All that matters is that it (trade balance) was negative (in 2016), and it is now positive (2024).”
Verdict
Therefore, the claim is rated partly true.
Editor’s Note: This report has been amended to incorporate the response we received from the MP when we presented him with our findings. This is contained in the last three paragraphs before the verdict.
