TOTAL MERCHANDISE exports for the first half of 2010 amounted to US$3.9 billion, a growth of 22.8 percent on year-on-year basis.

Cocoa beans and products amounted to $1.3 billion compared to $1.1 billion for the same period in 2009. Gold exports receipts amounted to $1.8 billion compared with $1.3 billion in 2009. By the end of the 2009/2010 main cocoa season, cumulative purchases were 587,166 tonnes compared to the crop size at the close of the 2009/2009 season of 634,256 tonnes.

Total merchandise imports in the first half of 2010 amounted to $5.14 billion, 28.1 percent higher than the level recorded in the first quarter of 2009. Oil imports for the period amounted to $1.1 billion or 94.9 percent above the $47.9 per barrel realized a year ago. The volume of crude and oil products imported increased by 15.5 percent to 1.5 million metric tonnes from 1.3 metric tonnes a year ago.

Non-oil imports for the period amounted to $4 billion compared to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2009. Capital and intermediate goods together accounted for 79.9 percent of total non-oil imports at the end of the first quarter of 2010, compared with 69.5 percent recorded in a similar period of 2009.

Trade deficit for the first half widened to $1.2 billion compared to $1 billion recorded for the same period in 2009.

Private inward transfers (including receipts by NGOs, embassies and individuals through the banks0 amounted to $4.2 billion in the first five months of 2010, representing a 22.2 percent increase over the $3.5 billion for the corresponding period in 2009. Of the total transfers in January to May this year, $626.2 million (14.8 percent) accrued to individuals, compared with $604.84 million (17.5 percent) recorded for the same period in 2009.