Foreign Reserves Resume Decline After Rising To $33.59bn

The foreign exchange reserves in Nigeria have started declining again after rising to $33.59bn, the highest level in more than a month.

The forex reserves, which fell to a record low of $33.09bn on July 12, had gained $500m in almost a month to close at $33.59bn on August 10, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The reserves, however, declined to $33.58bn on August 12, the CBN data showed.

In a related development, the total forex transactions on FMDQ Securities Exchange rose by about 2.24 per cent last week.

The exchange said in the forex spot and derivatives markets, the total turnover for the week ended August 13, 2021 was $692.60m, up from $677.44m reported for the previous week.

It said the week-on-week increase in turnover was driven by the 12.31 per cent increase in the forex spot, despite the 24.06 per cent decrease in forex derivatives turnover.

The decrease in forex derivatives turnover was said to have been driven by the 30.24 per cent decrease in forex forwards turnover.

FMDQ Exchange said this resulted in a decrease in forex derivatives’ contribution to total forex market turnover to 20.57 per cent, from 27.69 per cent recorded in the previous week.

It said the total value of transactions in the Investors’ & Exporters’ forex market was $550.14m, representing an increase of 12.31 per cent from $489.85m in the previous week.

According to the exchange, the average Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing rate was N411.17/$, compared to N411.16/$ recorded in the previous week, representing a depreciation of the naira against the dollar by 0.003 per cent.

The naira, however, appreciated against the dollar by 0.04 percent at the parallel market as it averaged 510.60/$, compared to 510.80/$ in the previous week.