Macroeconomic Report & Economic Updates
April 5, 2016
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 14)
The
considerable increase in inflation continued to be driven by
exchange-rate-pass-through from imported items as well as the lingering
scarcity in the availability of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). One of the key ways
to reduce inflationary pressures in the near term is to improve the supply of
PMS to filling stations. In the medium to long term, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) may need to revitalize local refining and bridge
the gap between the supply and demand for PMS by households and businesses.
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 39)
Nigerias
external reserve fell marginally by from $25.36 billion to $25.16 billion.
The decline likely reflects the continued sales of dollar by CBN amid fall in
oil revenue. Similarly, the naira/dollar exchange rate depreciated marginally
by 0.5 percent to N424/$ at the parallel segmentas also seen in
preceding weeks. The continued depreciation likely points to banks low level
compliance to CBNs dollar sales directive made in August, 2016,
thus creating artificial dollar scarcity in the parallel market.