Global oil price edged upwards in the review week. International crude benchmark, Brent, rose week-on-week by 3.1 percent to $50 per barrel as at July 21, 20173 a level it had not attained since June. The remarkable gains followed demand-side progress earlier statistics from China showed increase in crude imports, indicating prospects of higher demand. This was also complimented by the huge drop in US domestic crude production (Crude reserves fell by 4.7 million barrels). If the trend is sustained, Nigeria could record further rise in its Gross Federally Collected Revenue. Nevertheless, there remains a need for Nigeria to overcome the challenge of harnessing its oil and gas resources by making strategic policy choices andensuring coordination in policy implementation to minimize macroeconomic distortions.

The Executive council recently approved a three-year external borrowing plan (2016-2018) which specifies external borrowing of approximately $30 billion (to be sourced mostly from MDBs) for infrastructure development. Although, the plan is yet to be approved by the Senate, the planned concessional loans for infrastructural development would imply inflows of foreign exchange which could help moderate the exchange rate volatilities in the near term, and offer potential improvement in business productivity and job creation.