Nigeria foreign reserves decreases to $33.12b
Nigeria’s foreign
exchange reserves slipped slightly to $33.12 billion naira by the end
of January from $33.53 billion two weeks earlier, and remain down more
than a quarter from a year ago, the Central Bank said on Wednesday.
The foreign
reserves of Africa’s top oil and gas producer have fallen over the past
12 months despite rising oil prices and production, raising concerns
about government spending in the run-up to April elections. They are
now 27 per cent below year-ago levels.
The government has
said the decline is partly due to spending to maintain a stable naira
currency in the face of higher dollar demand, as well as spending on
the power sector and seed capital for a planned sovereign wealth fund.
Central Bank
governor, Lamido Sanusi, told Reuters last month monetary tightening,
higher money market yields, a recovering banking sector, and higher oil
prices and production should help stop the reserve depletion.
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