Foreign Reserves Shed $216m in One Week to Close at $45.8b

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Last week, the free-fall in the Nigerian external reserves continued, depreciating by $216.2 million to close at $45.88 billion as at Thursday, August 30, 2018.

According to data obtained by Business Post from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as at Friday, August 24, 2018, the reserves stood at $46.091 billion, but declined to $45.875 billion as at Thursday, August 30, 2018.

Meanwhile, during trading last week, the Nigerian Naira lost week-on-week (w-o-w) against the US

Dollar at the Investors & Exporters Forex Window (I&E FXW) by 0.08 percent to close at N362.64.

Also, Naira depreciated against the greenback at the parallel market to close at N361/$.

However, local currency remained unchanged against the Dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment at N357/$ as CBN sustained its special intervention.

Also, Naira/Dollar rate closed flat at the interbank foreign exchange market at N330/$ amid weekly injections by CBN of $210 million into the foreign exchange market via the Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS): of which $100 million was allocated to Wholesale (SMIS), $55 million was allocated to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and $55 million was sold for invisibles.

Meanwhile, most dated forward contracts at the interbank over-the-counter (OTC) segment appreciated; 2 months, 3 months and 6 months contracts gained 0.01 percent, 0.05 percent and 0.07 percent to close N368.33/$, N371.60/$, N383.06/$ respectively.

However, 1 month contract remained unchanged at N365.24/$ while spot rate contract lost 0.02 percent to close N306.15/$.

This week, there is expected to be stability in the exchange rate at the BDC segment as CBN continues its special intervention.