Naira Unaffected by Trump’s Victory

• Naira Unaffected by Trump’s Victory

An economist and an analyst on Wednesday said the election victory of Donald Trump as U.S. president-elect would not affect the Naira.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in telephone interviews that Nigeria should focus
more on policies that would revive the economy.

Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, former Managing Director of Citizens Bank, said “the crash of U.S. markets before the announcement of the U.S. presidential election result was pelted.

“On our Naira, we only need to look inwards, we can solve our problems not foreigners.

“Trump’s win or otherwise cannot help the Naira. Our policies matter a lot. Observing the elections and the markets, you will see that the markets went down because of fear.

“Also, he cannot deport immigrants like he has been saying because there are laws.”

An analyst who would not want to be identified also said that “when the election results started trickling in, the American markets crashed but after he was named president-elect, it stabilised.

“For now, people are afraid, scared of what policies Trump may bring but in the long run,
things will stabilise.

“On what his win portends for our naira, it may look like it is jerking up for now but the American presidency has no direct relation with the stability of the Naira.”

It will be recalled that the Wall Street share markets went  flat after Donald Trump’s election victory despite expectations of heavy falls.

The S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq stock indexes were little changed after the first hour of trading.

The pre-open future markets forecast dramatic sell-offs when Mr Trump’s lead became clear overnight.

Share traders had expected Hillary Clinton to beat Mr Trump to become the next US president on the back of polling forecasts.

UK and European stock markets have made back early losses, with money flowing into safe haven stocks, gold and currencies including the yen.

NAN