Macroeconomic Report & Economic Updates
January 15, 2018
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 50)
In the third quarter of 2017, NBS report show that Nigeria recorded a marginal quarter-overquarter and significant Year-on-Year increases in the value (in Naira terms) of merchandise (goods) foreign trade. At N5.92 trillion, total merchandise trade increased 3.9 percent over the preceding quarter and 23.9 percent over the corresponding quarter in 2016. Specifically, with exports rising QOQ by 15.2 percent to N3.57 trillion and imports shrinking by 9.4 percent to N2.35 trillion, trade balance amounted to a surplus of N1.22 trillion in 2017Q3- a substantial 142 percentage increase (QOQ) in trade surplus value.
Related
Portfolio Diversification Between Developed And Less Developed Economies
This study
examines the hedging effectiveness of portfolio investment diversification
between developed and developing economies; with focus on the Nigerian stock
asset vis--vis the stock assets of the United States (US) and United Kingdom
(UK). Its main contribution is in the analysis of optimal portfolio
diversification using optimal portfolio weight (OPW) and optimal hedging ratio
(OHR). Empirical findings show that the OPW and OHR are low, which indicates impressive
potential gains from combining Nigerian stock assets in an investment portfolio
with US and UK stock assets. In addition, exchange rate volatility is found to
pose stern limitation on the potential benefits of this portfolio
diversification arrangement. It is therefore recommended that the monetary
authority in Nigeria should pursue policies towards reducing exchange rate
volatility to the barest minimum. This will possibly attract more investors
from developed economies who might be willing to combine Nigerian stock in
their investment portfolio to minimize portfolio risk.