PRIVATE inward remittances from abroad shot up in the first five months of this year after declining during the same period last year.

A Private inward remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to his or her home country.

According to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) report released on Friday, July 16, private inward transfers including receipts by NGOs, Embassies and individuals through the banks amounted to $4.2 billion in the first five months of 2010.

This represented a 22.2 percent increase over $3.5 billion which was recorded in 2009.  

In 2009, private remittances dropped but the margin was not very huge.

It appears anticipated growth in the global economy caused Ghanaians leaving abroad to remit monies to their families in the first five months of 2010.

Remittances dropped in 2007 but shot up in 2008, and 2009.

Of the total transfers from January to May 2010, $626.2 million, representing a 14.8 percent increase went to individuals as against $604.84 million, representing an increase of 17.5 percent recorded for the same period in 2009.

Remittances contribute to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and therefore its surge brings some hope to the country’s economy.

The inflows for the months of October, November and December 2008 were $654.8 million, $608 million and $990.2 million respectively, as against corresponding inflows of $787.3 million, $614.9 million and $718.3 million in 2007.

Of the total transfers for 2008, $1.678 billion went to individuals, compared with $1.660 billion in 2007.

Meanwhile, non-oil imports for the first five months of 2010 amounted to $4 billion compared to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2009.

Capital and intermediate goods 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 2009. 

By Charles Nixon Yeboah