CEM REPORT, FINANCE | Pressure from domestic and international trade and monetary factors have continued to have dampening impact on Nigerian foreign reserve.
According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the nation’s foreign reserve lost USD80.2 million in 5 days having declined from USD37,20 billion it was on 19th January to USD37.122 billion on 24 January 2023.
The nation’s reserve had edged upward recovering from the end of year lowest figure of USD36,95 billion on December 15 to USD37.202 billion on January 19. The curve proceeded on a downward slope to the current figure losing 0.216%.
On annual performance, Nigeria lost USD3.43 billion I 2022 as the foreign asset declined from $40.52 billion at the beginning of the year to USD37.1 billion in December
Poor performance of Nigeria in meeting its OPEC quota have had less improvements in the country’s foreign reserve against the expected leap following the price of crude oil performance in the international market. Expected gains eluded the country following crude theft and non-operational fields which combined to reduce Nigerian expected crude production in 2022.
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While the country failed to ride on the gains in crude oil price to beef-up its external reserve, interventions by the central bank as an effort to defend the local currency and stabilize the exchange rate has continued to weigh on what is available.
This is against the backdrop of weak non-oil export that still keep the country on a single lane of foreign exchange earning while import continues to mount following low performance of industrial sector. Import into the country gulped N5.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2022 and declined slightly to N5.66 trillion in the third quarter compared to the entire 2022 non-oil export of US$ 4.820 billion which amounts to 2.27 trillion (N460/$1).