Nigeria’s FX Inflow Rose to $33.02bn

• Nigeria’s FX Inflow Rose to $33.02bn in Second Half of 2016

The provisional cumulative inflow of foreign exchange (FX) into the Nigerian economy rose to US$33.02 billion as of December 2016, representing a 13.3 percent increase above the level in the first half of last year.

Of this amount, inflow through autonomous sources accounted for 62.3 percent, while inflow through the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) accounted for 37.7 percent.

The CBN disclosed this in its Financial Stability Report as of December 2016, obtained on its website Thursday.

According to the report, total FX outflow from the economy rose by 14.8 per cent to US$13.64 billion from the level in the first half of 2016. The rise in outflow was mainly attributed to the increase in the interbank forwards settled in the second half of 2016. The economy recorded a net FX inflow of US$19.38 billion, representing 12.21 per cent rise above the level in the first half of 2016.

The total autonomous inflow rose by 0.7 per cent to US$20.58 billion, compared to the level in the first half of 2016 due mainly to rise in invisibles by 2.5 per cent, of which 62.3 per cent was accounted for by ordinary domiciliary accounts. FX inflow through the CBN rose by 42.9 per cent above the level in the first half of 2016 to US$12.45 billion, due to increases in crude oil and non-oil export earnings. Receipts from crude oil sales rose by 22.7 per cent to US$5.66 billion, in the first half of 2016. This was attributed to the gradual increase in domestic production and international crude oil prices. The non-oil receipts rose by 65.5 per cent to US$6.79 billion in the second half of 2016, due mainly to increase in other official receipts.

“Foreign exchange outflow through the CBN rose by 15.5 per cent to US$12.39 billion, above the level in the first half of 2016. Of this amount, interbank utiliation accounted for US$7.99 billion, of which inter-bank forwards, inter-bank sales and others stood at US$4.17 billion (52.14 per cent), US$0.72 billion (8.92 per cent) and US$3.11 billion (38.9 per cent), respectively.

“Overall, the total foreign exchange transactions through the Bank resulted in a net inflow of US$0.58 billion in the second half of 2016, compared with a net inflow of US$0.96 billion in the corresponding half of 2015. This is, however, in contrast to a net outflow of US$2.03 billion in the first half of 2016,” it added.

Also, the report showed that the federal government retained revenue for the second half of 2016 increased to N2.558 trillion, above the levels of N1.898 trillion recorded in the first half of 2016 and the half- year budget estimate of N2.025 trillion for 2016. The increase in the retained revenue relative to the first half was mainly attributed to increase in non-oil receipts.

The breakdown of the retained revenue showed that the federal government share of the federation account was N1.26 trillion (49.4 per cent); the VAT Pool Account, N90.7 billion (3.5 per cent); the federal government Independent Revenue, N267.8 billion (10.5 per cent); share of excess crude Account, N141.4 billion (5.5 per cent); Exchange Gain, N316.4 billion (12.4 per cent) while others (including NNPC Refund) accounted for the balance of N479.3 billion (18.7 per cent).

“The fiscal stance of increased spending to address the challenges of the negative growth (recession) led to higher government expenditure in the second half of 2016. Consequently, federal government expenditure grew by 10.3 per cent to N4,024.8 billion, above N3,650.33 billion in the first half of 2016.

“It was, also higher than the budgeted expenditure of N3,127.27 billion for the second half of 2016. Recurrent expenditure component of the total expenditure accounted for N3,496.5 billion (86.9 per cent) while capital and statutory transfers components accounted for N264.9 billion (6.6 per cent) and N263.4 billion (6.5 per cent), respectively,” it added.

The fiscal operations of the federal government in the second half of 2016 resulted in an overall deficit of N1.467 trillion, compared with the N1.752 trillion recorded in the first half of 2016 and the budgeted deficit of N1.102 trillion for the second half of 2016.