Foreign reserves drop by 408.2m in one week, as Naira depreciates

Nigeria’s external reserves have declined by 408.2 million in one week or 1.34 percent to $35.27 billion as of February 22, 2021 from $35.75 billion in February 12, 2021.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the drop was largely due to the increased dollar sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to edge against the naira depreciation. However, with oil surpassing the $67.00 per barrel mark, oil receipts may be much better in the coming days.

Read also: Foreign reserves shed $50.83m in 10 days

Despite the interventions from CBN, on Wednesday naira weakened by N0.2 or 0.05 per cent to close at N408.80 against the dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market, data from the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is officially traded showed.

Naira had traded at N408.60 on Tuesday.

On the unofficial market however, data from abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos shows Naira remained stable at N480, the same rate it traded on Tuesday.

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