By Aaron Hammond 
Ghana’s economy is looking good, Charlie! The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) just dropped their 2025 Annual International Merchandise Trade Statistics Report, and the numbers are massive. Ghana recorded a trade surplus of GH¢148.3 billion in 2025. That is more than three times the GH¢44.7 billion surplus we had in 2024. Simply put, we sold a lot more to the world than we bought.
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Total trade hit a huge GH¢654.7 billion (about US$52.5 billion), which is a 20.1% jump from 2024. Our exports brought in GH¢401.5 billion, while we spent GH¢253.2 billion on imports. Government Statistician Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu shared that every single month in 2025, our exports beat our imports. December was the best month, bringing in GH¢46 billion in exports alone!
So, what exactly is bringing in all this cash? Gold, gold, and more gold. It is still our biggest export, bringing in GH¢252.4 billion, which is nearly 63% of all our export earnings. Cocoa beans and products added another GH¢56.2 billion, and crude oil brought in GH¢35.3 billion. Together, these three make up nearly 86% of our exports. While the money is good, it shows we still rely heavily on just a few things.
Now, what are we buying? Mostly fuel. Diesel was our top import, costing GH¢28.4 billion, followed closely by petrol at GH¢23.2 billion. We also bought a lot of cars, machinery, and food like rice. Interestingly, our food exports actually went up by GH¢33.3 billion, mostly thanks to cocoa and nuts, while food imports dropped slightly.
Where is all this trade happening? We expanded our reach, buying from 216 countries and selling to 163. Asia remains our biggest trading partner, with places like the UAE, India, and China taking our goods. China is still where we get most of our imports, spending GH¢57.6 billion there. Interestingly, we are doing well in Africa too, making a GH¢34.7 billion surplus from our neighbours. We export mostly to South Africa and import fuel mainly from Nigeria. This trade surplus is a big win for Ghana, showing strong growth, mainly fueled by high global gold prices!