Nigeria’s Trade Balance Rises to $11.42 Billion

CBN Headoffice, Abuja

Nigeria’s trade balance improved from $10.93 billion in the third quarter (Q3) of 2012 to $11.42 billion in the fourth quarter (Q4), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.

The CBN disclosed this in a report titled: “Developments in the External Sector of the Nigerian Economy for Fourth Quarter, 2012,” posted on its website at the weekend. It showed that aggregate exports rose by 3.5 per cent from $23.39 billion as at Q4 2011, to $24.21 billion in Q4 2012.

 

The report also revealed that the share of total trade, trade balance, exports and total foreign exchange flows as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded improved performance in Q4 2012.

“With this level of integration, policy should support increased domestic production and global competitiveness. The degree of openness, depicting the share of Nigeria’s total external trade to GDP rose slightly to 53 per cent in Q4 2012 from 52 recorded in the preceding quarter.

“Import as a per cent of GDP decreased by 0.29 per cent point to 17.2 per cent from its level in Q3 2012. Total foreign exchange flows as a percentage of GDP rose by 0.94 percentage point to 55.4 while net foreign exchange flows as a percentage of GDP declined by 0.16 percentage point to 25.6 per cent in Q4 2012,” the report added.

According to the report, the aggregate demand for foreign exchange by authorised dealers consisting of the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) and Bureau de Change (BDC) operators stood at $4.29 billion in Q4 2012, indicating a decline of 34.2 and 59.4 per cent when compared with the levels recorded in the preceding quarter and corresponding quarter of 2011, respectively.

 

It attributed the development to increased supply of foreign exchange through the autonomous sources at the interbank foreign exchange market segment.

“A total amount of $4.26 billion was supplied in Q4 2012, consisting of $3.32 billion and $0.94 billion to the WDAS and BDC operators, respectively. This indicated a decline of 34.39 and 46.35 per cent when compared with Q3 2012 and Q4 2011, respectively.

“A total of $10.22 billion was utilised in Q4 2012 consisting of $6.41 billion and $3.80 billion for visible and invisible trade. This represented 62.8 and 37.2 per cent, respectively. Further analysis showed that foreign exchange utilised for visible transactions remained dominant over the last two quarters of 2012,” it added.

Source: ThisDayLive