The country’s foreign reserves stood at $35.723bn as of September 29, according to  Central Bank of Nigeria.

CBN disclosed that the reserves, which had continued to rise and fall in recent weeks, was $35.67bn as of September 1 and rose to $35.81bn as of September 17.

The reserves rose by $65m from $35.59bn August 20 to $35.66bn on August 27.

It had earlier lost $278.91m from $35.87bn on July 29 to $35.59bn on August 19 after which it returned to a growth path.

CBN had stated in its report on ‘Monetary, credit, foreign trade and exchange policy guidelines for fiscal years 2020/2021’ that external reserves was expected to lie between $29.9bn and $34.3bn by 2020 ending.

It said, “Sequel to Covid-19 pandemic, the viability of the external sector in 2020 is expected to deteriorate, given the present worsening current account balance and depletion of external reserves driven, largely, by decelerating export receipts, particularly oil.

“Specifically, the degree of external reserves accumulation is expected to decelerate, as outflows are expected to outweigh inflows.

“As a result, external reserves are expected to lie between $29.9bn and $34.3bn at end-December 2020 (predicated on current declining oil price between $20 and $40).”

Punch