By Dipo Olowookere
Data from official website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that as of May 25, 2017, the country’s foreign reserves tumbled to $30.49 billion.
The figures, cited by Business Post on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, showed that in the previous day, May 24, 2017, the external reserves stood at $30.52 billion.
This was even a decline from what it was on May 23, 2017, which was $30.55 billion.
Since February 2017, the central bank had been releasing forex into the market in a bid to ease the pressure on the Naira, which was almost hitting N600 per Dollar then.
The apex bank started this intervention in the forex market when the foreign reserves were growing and promised to sustain this.
The reserves recorded significant growth when relative peace returned to the oil-rich Niger Delta region, which made the volume of crude oil produced by the country to rise. This lifted the reserves from $26.09 billion it was at the start of 2017.
The latest level of the reserves is the lowest since April 18, 2017.
Nigerian has been struggling with a fall in its economy and it is still finding its way out of recession.
Last week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country’s GDP contracted by 0.52 percent in the first quarter of 2017, indicating that the West Africa’s biggest economy was still in recession.
It has been predicted that Nigeria will quit recession in 2017 and the CBN said this would most likely be before the end of next quarter.
Aduragbemi Omiyale