The latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, have shown that Nigeria’s foreign reserves drop by $544.94m from $36.17bn on July 1, it now stands at $35.62bn as of August 13, 2020.
The Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, stated that these included domestic revenue, foreign exchange earnings, exchange rate development, price formation, capital inflows, external reserves, and balance of payments position.
According to the MPC, the impact of continued lockdown of major economies and restrictions on travel and trade will continue to be felt by the Nigerian economy through the short supply of essential imports; rise in inflation through high import prices and exchange rate depreciation; and impact of continued uncertainties and volatility of the oil market on macroeconomic stability.
The CBN, in its first-quarter economic report, entitled ‘Gross official external reserves,’ said the gross external reserves fell in the first quarter of 2020.
It stated that gross external reserves were $33.69bn at the end of March 2020.
This indicated a net decrease of 11.6 per cent, compared with the level in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The external reserves position would cover 4.5 months of import of goods and services or 7.3 months of import of goods only, based on the estimated value of imports for the first quarter of 2020.
A breakdown of the external reserves by ownership showed that the share of federation reserves was $0.32bn (0.9 per cent); Federal Government reserves, $5.85bn (17.4 percent); and the CBN reserves, $27.52bn (81.7 percent) of the total figure.
