Nigeria’s external reserves have continued to slide hitting a 12-year low as it crossed the $29 billion mark to a 30-day moving average of $28.931 billion as at Friday January 8, 2016.
This brings the total decline of the reserves from the beginning of December 2015 to 3.17 per cent.
The reserves which was at $29.880 billion as at December 1, 2015 had dropped by 2.7 per cent within the month to $29.069 the last day of last year before a further shed of $138.668 million dollars between December 31, 2015 and January 7, 2016.
Having hovered around $30 billion since September last year, the reserves began a steady decline in December, crossing over to $29 billion which it maintained throughout the month before it hit $28 on January 4, 2016 which is the latest figure given by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The external reserves had depreciated by 14.1 per cent last year having fallen from fallen from $34.46 billion which it was as at December 31, 2014 to $29.069 billion as at December 31, 2015 according to figures given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its website, covering barely four months of imports.
A source within the CBN explained that the decline was due to the fact that the level of inflow into the reserves was lower than the level of outflow during the 30-day period.
According to Olubunmi Asaolu of FBN Quest Research, the dropping level of the reserves also reflects the falling oil prices at the international market.
