Nigeria’s external reserves dropped by $523m to $34.475bn as of March 16 from $34.998bn recorded in March 1.
Figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria shows that the reserves which had continued a downward trend, lost $1.1bn in February, after it dropped from $36.19bn as of February 1 to $35.09bn as of February 26.
The CBN had recently stated that Nigeria’s external reserve at $35bn was sufficient to finance the country’s seven months’ imports.
According to the CBN’s monthly economic report for the fourth quarter of 2020, the performance of the external sector improved in the review quarter, despite the challenges of sluggish global recovery, weakened global demand, soaring second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and tense political environment in the United States.
It states that an estimated overall balance of payments surplus of $0.79bn was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020, from the $0.14bn recorded in the third quarter of 2020.
