With the slump in oil price below $65 per barrel, Nigeria’s foreign reserve has continued on the downward slide, shedding an accumulated 17.5 per cent within the year.
The external reserves which were $43.5 billion at the beginning of the year have dropped to $35.88 billion as of December 9, 2014, according to latest figures made available by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The reserves began a steady decline in October, dropping by 9.1 per cent in October and 2.5 per cent in the first 10 days of December 2014.
The value of the local currency remained stable at the interbank, selling at N180.86 to the dollar and official rates from the apex bank stood at N168 to the dollar. The CBN had, as part of measures to keep the exchange rates stable, intervened at the deleting exchange market last week and has sold less foreign exchange at its twice weekly retail Dutch auction this week.
On Monday, it offered $200 million up for sale and $150 million was offered up for sale at the auction on Wednesday bringing the total to $350 million, lower than the total of $400 million it offered for sale at the two auctions last week. Last week, it sold $459.4 million, higher than the $400 million it offered up for sale at the two auctions and has sold $349.74 million at this week’s auction.
At the money market end, bond yields all faced downwards even as the Nigeria Inter Bank Offer Rates (NIBOR) all trended downwards. Overnight rate was down by 27.46 per cent to 17.3350 per cent while the one-, three- and six-month lending rates dropped by 1.56, 0.58 and 0.28 per cents each.
Source: Leadership
