Nigerian foreign reserves down by 23 percent
Nigeria’s foreign
exchange reserves inched up to $33.4 billion by mid-December from $33.1
billion two weeks earlier, but remain 23 percent down a year ago, the
Central Bank said on Thursday.
President Goodluck
Jonathan said in his 2011 budget presentation to the National Assembly
on Wednesday that the reserves “remain comfortable”, but analysts and
diplomats have voiced alarm at their depletion from around $43.4
billion a year ago.
Nigeria’s public
finances are under scrutiny in the run-up to presidential,
parliamentary, and state governorship elections next April. The
country’s budget deficit is expected to top 6 percent this year and it
has spent billions of dollars of windfall oil savings.
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