Nigeria’s External Reserves Climb To $25.4bn
A new data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria shows that the country’s foreign exchange reserves have gone up to $25.4bn.
The latest data shows that, in less than one week, the reserves rose by almost $300m from $25.084bn recorded on 16 December 16, 2016 to $25.361 on 22 December, 2016.
The last time the reserves recorded something close to this figure was on 2 September. That was when it had the balance of $24.361bn.
At the end of November, the reserves stood at $24.77bn, up from $23.95bn on October 31.
The CBN data showed that the foreign exchange reserves declined to $24.92bn on 14 September from $25.11bn on 9 September.
Central Bank uncertain
“We are not sure the extent this can go. Currently, the FX market is not a free-float one where the interplay of demand and supply determines price and volume.
”The uptick is not as a result of supply over demand. It happens when there is a slowdown in the allocation of FX,” the Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said.
Earlier, the reserves fell from $26bn on 4 August, 2016 to $25.97bn on 5 August as the central bank stepped up dollar sales to boost liquidity at the interbank market and support the ailing naira.
The naira, which touched an all-time low of 365.25 per dollar on 18 August at the official market, has consistently closed around 305.5 in recent weeks.
