NIGERIAN LOSS ON TRADE HITS A RECORD HIGH IN LESS THAN A YEAR
The NBS on Monday revealed that Nigeria’s trade deficit rose to N3.03tn in the third quarter of the year.
National Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria recorded a deficit trade balance of N8.9tn, between January and September, 2021. This is the first time nigeria trade deficit will hit a record high in nine months.
A breakdown by the bureau shows that Nigeria’s total merchandise trade stood at N9.76tn in the first quarter of the year representing 6.99 per cent increase over the value recorded in forth quarter of 2020.
During this period, total foreign trade stood at N35.09tn, comprising N22tn imports and N13.1tn exports, leading to N8.9tn trade deficit. The higher level of imports over exports resulted in a trade deficit (in goods) of N3.94tn in Q1 2021.
The export component of this trade stood at N2.91tn, representing 29.79 per cent of the total trade in the first quarter while import was valued at N6.85tn representing 70.21 per cent.
However, the value of imports and exports in the second quarter brought total merchandise trade to N12.03tn, representing a 23.28 per cent increase from the N9.7tn recorded in the first quarter.
The higher level of imports over exports resulted in a trade deficit (in goods) of N3.94tn in Q1 2021. Also, The value of crude oil export stood at N1.93tn representing 66.38 per cent of the total export recorded in Q1, 2021, while non-crude oil export accounted for 33.62 per cent of the total export.
Data from the Bureau showed that majority of the goods imported during this period originated from China, valued at N2tn, followed by the Netherlands (N726.09bn), the United States (N608.12bn), India (N589.1bn) and Belgium (N238.5bn).
These loss is a combination of a lot of things, starting from the pandemic, government policies to the issue of insecurity in Nigeria and the devaluation of currency which saw a dollar amounted to #550 during the period.
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