Macroeconomic Report & Economic Updates
February 13, 2017
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 5)
The Naira continued to depreciate in the
review week. At the parallel market, naira exchanged for N498/$ on January 27,
2017 and N500/$ on February 3, 2017. Despite the weekly sales of forex to BDCs and
the significant improvements in the external reserves, the naira has continued
to lose value to other currencies. The pressure on the naira has been triggered
by escalating scarcity of forex in the spot market, likely due to
forex hoarding. However, in the preceding week, the CBN sold $660 million in forwards
contract in an attempt to manage liquidity and stabilize the naira.
In the face of growing speculation in the parallel market, the monetary
authority should institute mechanisms that would discourage excessive forex
hoarding among licensed BDC operators. An initiative that monitors transaction
dealings in the parallel market would go a long way in detecting erring BDC
operators.
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 48)
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that Internally Generated Revenue by states increased in 2017H1. The IGR increased from N392.1 billion in 2016H1, to N396.9 billion in 2017H1, a slight 1.2 percentage half Year-on-year growth. Also, N149.5 billion was generated in 2017Q3. Lagos state remains top in internal revenue generation, with a significant 42.3 percent share of total IGR in the review half year. The improvements in IGR may be attributable to efficient revenue collection by each reported state from the various sources of internal revenue: taxes, fines and fees, licenses, earnings & sales, rent on government property, interests and dividends, among others.