The country’s external reserves fell from $36.99bn in January to $36.67bn as of February 27, 2023, a fall of about $112.78m in just two weeks, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria have revealed.
The data also shows that by March 30, 2023, the reserves have plummeted to $35.53bn.
At the last Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja in March, the Governor, CBN, attributed the decline in the external reserves to the fall in crude oil prices.
Analysts at Cordros Securities stated in its report on ‘Profound market insight on the go’ released on Friday that, “We believe FX liquidity issues will remain over the short-to-medium term as we do not see any positive signal that denotes an improvement in FX supply relative to the pre-pandemic levels.
“Moreover, considering the tepid accretion to the reserves given (1) low crude oil production and (2) elevated PMS under-recovery costs, FPIs who have historically supported supply levels in the IEW will be needed to sustain FX liquidity levels in the medium to long-term.”
