Macroeconomic Report & Economic Updates
January 22, 2016
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 2)
Inflation rate rose slightly to 9.4 percent in
November 2015 from 9.3 percent in the previous month. This rise is attributed
to price increase in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, and Transportation costs
which extends from shortages of petrol across the country. The food
sub-index grew by 0.2 percentage points to 10. 1 percent while, the Core sub-index
declined by 0.2 percentage points to 8.7 percent within the period. The
inflationary up-tick points to the need to curtail the rising food prices by
increasing the supply of petrol in the country.
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 32)
The naira continued its
downward trajectory this week. Specifically, naira depreciated at the interbank
segment by 3.45 percent to N300/$; and by 3.56 percent to 378/$ at
the parallel segment. Despite the CBNs effort to support the naira
with Forwards and FOREX futures, the excess demand for dollar continues to put
pressure on the naira. Looking forward, the stabilization of exchange rate
depends on the ability of the CBN and government to attract capital inflows;
particularly by raising interest rate, tackling inflation and supporting
economy recovery.
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 51)
Recently released data by the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that there was significant increase in Nigerias
total merchandise trade for 2016Q3. Basically, the total merchandise trade
increased (quarter-on-quarter) by 16.29 percent to N4, 722 billion in 2016Q3;owing to 29.1 percent increase in exports and 6.2 percent rise in imports. Oil
exports increased by 31 percent to N1, 943 billion, while non-oil exports
increased by 20.5 percent to N440 billion. However, on the aggregate, Nigeria
recorded yet another trade deficit of N104 billion, indicating continuous
higher imports relative to exports. Overall, though there is improvement in the
performance of non-oil sector, however, this is insufficient to effectively
complement the loss in oil trade sustained since the beginning of oil price
crash. This suggests that diversification into non-oil sector may not be able
to rescue the economy in the short term. However, while the diversification
efforts should be sustained, eliminating hurdles in oil production may be
instrumental to higher exports, especially as oil price increase is gaining
momentum.