New data from the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday morning shows that the nation’s pool of external reserve has continued to rise on the back of the latest Eurobond issuance by the Federal Government and despite current efforts to defend the Naira against major global currencies.
The CBN put the value of Nigeria’s reserves at $43.041bn on Monday, December 17, 2018, after rising by $874.358m or 2.07% from the $42.167bn recorded at the end of November.
On a month-on-month basis however, the reserves level climbed by $1.437bn or 3.45% from $41.604bn on November 16, 2018, returning very close to the $43.126bn it last touched on March 5, 2018.
Recall that the reserves started declining at a steady pace after peaking at $47.865bn on May 10, 2018, after which it decline set in despite the rise in the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner. This was also at a time of peace in the once volatile oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The reserves level however started its gradual rise on November, after falling to a low of $41.523bn, which it time it had lost all of $6.342bn, or 13.25% from the May 10 peak level.
According to a December 10, 2018 data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s GDP for Q3 2018 rose by 1.81%, faster than the 1.5% reported in the preceding quarter and 1.17% in the corresponding period of 2017. The level was however below 2.11% growth recorded in the 2017Q4.
Highlights of the report showed that oil GDP remained constrained, contracting by -2.91%, at a time non-oil GDP climbed 2.32%, faster than the 2.05% of Q2 2018, or -0.76% in Q3 2017. Non-oil sector growth within the period was driven “by Information and communication; other drivers were Agriculture, Manufacturing, Trade, Transportation and Storage and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services.”
A further breakdown showed that a total of 1.94m barrels of oil were produced on the average per day in the Q3, up from 1.84mbpd, but lower than the 2.02mbpd in 2018Q1 and 2017Q4.