The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Wednesday, steadied at a rebounded rate of 365 to a dollar against 367 sold on Tuesday at the parallel market, even as the Investor & Exporter FX widow segment recorded an appreciable turnover figure of $162.26 million, against $96.03 million traded the preceding day.
The new traded figure, showed that 1&E FX window’s daily turnover increased significantly by $66.23million, while compared $162.26 million stood at the end yesterday trading activity to $96.03 million traded on Tuesday, data obtained from the FMDQ OTC has revealed.
Even though, the naira opened at a depreciated rate of 367.46 against 366.70 of Tuesday, indicating a drop of 0.21 per cent, however, ended yesterday trading on a slight negative note with closing rate of 367.50 as against 367.38 on Tuesday. However, the local currency, stood steady against two other major foreign currencies at the parallel market, closing at 476 and 428, respectively, the same rate it traded on the first trading day of the week.
But at the official foreign exchange market, the naira, relapsed from 305.50 sold on Tuesday to record 305.55 per dollar, a rate first recorded on Monday, showing a decline of 0.02 per cent. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the naira in circulation has recorded a decline of 5.6 per cent to N1.77 trillion in July 2017, latest The nation’s currency in circulation continued to drop in 2017 following the apex Bank intensive effort to mop liquidity in the economy to reduce inflation and sustain its stability. Naira in circulation according to CBN in June was N1.87tr from N1.897tr reported in May this year while it was at N1.98tr in April.
CBN early in the year disclosed that currency in circulation was N1.99tr, the highest so far this year and Inflation rate by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has since dropped to 16.1 per cent as at June from 18.72 per cent in January. Before now, the CBN said N2.2tr currency was in circulation for month ended December 2016, increase of about 14.3 per cent from N1.9tr reported by CBN in November. Naira in circulation started increasing from July to N1.66tr as against N1.68tr recorded in August the prior year.
However, Analysts at Cordros Capital, has said, “We expect the Naira currency to remain unchanged or slightly depreciate against the currencies we track this week, given the increased demand for foreign exchange this season, albeit, the intervention by the CBN should reduce imbalances.”
