Publications
February 3, 2017
Regional Trade For Inclusive Development In West Africa
This
study examines the potential of regional trade in facilitating the achievement
of inclusive development in the West African region. It employs descriptive
analysis to examine the nature, composition and dimension of ECOWAS trade within
the group and with the rest of the world, vis–vis three other Regional
Economic Communities (RECs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). From the preliminary
study, it can be observed that the growth rate of West African economies is
increasing, but the rising economic growth does not translate to improvement in
inclusive development, as there was no significant reduction in poverty levels in
the region. Further evidence reveals that extra-regional trade of the region is
increasing at a very high rate, and also at a disproportionate rate with
intra-regional trade, compared with SADC. This indicates the existence of
opportunity to boost regional trade for inclusive development through
conversion of part of the extra-regional trade into regional trade.
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 29)
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.
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 7)
External
reserve dropped slightly by 0.6 per cent from $28.35 billion in January 22 to
$28.19 billion in January 295. Considering the continuous decline, government
has stepped up efforts towards financing the deficit in the proposed budget
through borrowing. At the forex market, the official exchange rate remained
unchanged at N197/$ while the naira depreciated at the parallel market by 2.36
percent from N297/$ to N304/$ between January 22 and 296. Despite
the huge spread between the official and parallel market exchange rates, the
monetary authorities maintained its fixed exchange rate regime at the official
forex market. It is expected that if the demand pressure for dollar persists,
the value of naira may decline in the near term.