Total Nigeria merchandising trade stood at N9.12 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing an 8.9 percent increase relative to the preceding quarter and a 9.9 percent decrease relative to the corresponding quarter of 2019.1 For the fifth consecutive quarter, Nigeria recorded a negative balance of trade with the import component of trade accounting for 65 percent while export component of trade accounted for 35 percent. Crude oil accounted for 78.93 percent of Nigeria’s export while manufactured goods accounted for 64.56 percent of total imports. Nigeria’s major export trading partner is India (17.12 percent) while China (28.28 percent) accounted for most import to Nigeria. Improvements in foreign trade is expected to continue as economic activities in our major trading partner countries increase. However, diversifying the export base to include other goods such as agricultural commodities, textiles, and manufactured goods is pertinent. To achieve this, ensuring standardization of commodities and setting competitive freight charges will unlock the opportunities in external trade.
March 24, 2021
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 11)
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 18)
Recent Data released by the Nigeria Bureau
of Statistics reveals an increase in total public debt stock between 2015 and
2016. Foreign and domestic debt stock stood at $11.4 billion and N14.0 trillion
respectively as at December 2016, from $10.7 billion and N10.5
trillionrecorded as at December 2015. Disaggregated
data shows that foreign debt sources comprised Multilateral ($8.0 billion),
Bilateral ($0.2 billion) and Exim bank of China ($3.2 billion); domestic
sources included government bonds, treasury bills and bonds. The federal
government and states accounted for 68.7% and 31.3% respectively of foreign
debt stock; 78.9% and 21.1% respectively of domestic debt stock. This maybe
particularly at the backdrop of government borrowings in 2016 to finance its
expenditure (mostly recurrent).
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 35)
Recent report in the media highlights that Nigerias
GDP has dropped to $296 billion in 2016, in contrast to the $481 billion
recorded in 20151 and Nigeria has lost its position as Africas
largest economy to South Africa. This conclusion was based on the computation
of GDP with current naira-dollar exchange rate. However, while the naira has
significantly lost its official value since the adoption of a flexible exchange
rate, estimating GDP merely with a single exchange rate figure (rather than its
yearly average) cannot be regarded as an appropriate method to conclude on Africas
largest economy.