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The foreign exchange market on Wednesday witnessed 0.14 percent depreciation in naira/dollar exchange to N361.14k, after five months of trading around N360 per dollar.
Naira was quoted at N361.14k to the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, showing exactly the same rate traded on January 8, 2018 at the investors and exporters forex window, data from FMDQ and compiled by BusinessDay revealed.
At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX), naira weakened marginally by o.03 percent to close at N360.87k on Wednesday from N360.77k on Tuesday.
The local currency also lost N1.00k at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment as it closed at N363 per dollar on Wednesday as against N362/$ traded the previous day, data from Naijabdc showed. Naira traded at the same level of N305.75k at the Central Bank’s official window.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continues its interventions, injected $210 million on Tuesday to enhance liquidity in the forex market.
The Bank again offered the sum of $100 million to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market. The Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $55 million while the sum of $55 million was apportioned to invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA).
The CBN’s first half 2017 economic report revealed that Aggregate foreign exchange inflow into the economy in the first half of 2017 was US$34.82 billion, indicating an increase of 3.7 and 20.0 per cent above the levels in the second and first halves of 2016, respectively.
Of the total, inflow through autonomous sources at US$18.95 billion accounted for 54.4 per cent, while inflow through the CBN was US$15.87 billion and accounted for 45.6 per cent. Aggregate foreign exchange outflow from the economy rose by 1.5 and 16.7 per cent to US$13.88 billion above the levels in the second and first halves of 2016, respectively. Consequently, the net foreign exchange flow to the economy was US$20.94 billion, as against US$19.90 billion and US$17.12 billion, in the second and first halves of 2016, respectively.
Foreign exchange inflow through autonomous sources at US$18.95 billion in the first half of 2017, showed a decline of 10.8 and 7.7 per cent, compared with US$21.24 billion and US$20.51 billion in the second and first halves of 2016, respectively. The decline was mainly due to the 87.6 per cent reduction in external account purchases from the level in the preceding period. A disaggregation of the inflow through autonomous sources showed that, invisible purchases accounted for US$17.00 billion; non-oil export receipts, US$1.91 billion; and external account purchases, US$0.03 billion. Of the invisible purchases, ordinary domiciliary accounts amounted to US$10.00 billion, and total over-the-counter (OTC) purchase was US$7.01 billion. A further breakdown of the OTC purchases revealed that “Others” amounted to US$2.90 billion, capital importation, US$2.82 billion; purchases by banks from oil companies, US$0.90 billion and home remittances, US$0.39 billion.
Aggregate outflow through autonomous sources amounted to US$1.10 billion, driven largely by invisible import, which amounted to US$0.67billion, while visible import was US$0.32 billion. These accounted for 71.1 and 28.9 per cent, respectively, of total outflow through autonomous sources.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
