Naira Depreciates to N367 Against US Dollar

• Naira Depreciates to N367 Against US Dollar

The Naira depreciated at the parallel market despite the Central Bank of Nigeria $250 million intervention on Monday.

The local currency declined to N367 against the US dollar on Wednesday, down from N365 a US dollar recorded a week ago.

Central bank has managed to keep the Naira relatively stable in the past few months, trading between N365 – N370 against the US dollar. Thanks to its intermittent interventions.

So far, the apex bank has injected about $1 billion in the last two weeks to support the forex market and boost economic activities.

The bank’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, attributed the second quarter economic growth to the CBN intermittent interventions and efforts at ensuring businesses access forex at CBN stipulated rate.

He further stated that the timely execution and settlement of eligible contracts as well as surge in forex liquidity aided the real sector and bolstered industrial capacities that revamped the economy.

However, experts believe surged in the oil production and fairly stable global oil prices boosted the economy in the second quarter.

For instance, “While the non-oil (0.45%), manufacturing (0.64%), and agricultural (3.01%) sectors sustained growth in the second quarter, they expanded at a slower pace than preceding quarters. However, oil sector offset that shortfall by rebounding from -15.40 percent recorded in the first quarter to grow at 1.64 percent in the second quarter. Another indication that the economy is still crude oil driven,” said Samed Olukoya, a foreign exchange research analyst at Investors King Ltd.

The economy expanded by 0.55 percent in the quarter, up from -0.91 percent recorded in the preceding quarter.