Nigeria’s Foreign reserves fall to $39.56b

 

The nation’s foreign reserves fell to $39.56 billion by September 26, down 0.15 per cent from the previous month.

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), showed that the reserves stood at $39.62 billion in August and were $45.66 billion in September last year. Currency traders attributed the fall to draw downs by the CBN to support the naira.

The data further showed that the reserves stood at $39.65 billion on August 25 and  $38.4 billion on July 17. The rate of accretions to the reserves has been marginal but consistent since the CBN reviewed the Bureau De Change (BDC) policy guidelines.

The reserves were at $37.23 billion on June 25; $37.26 billion on June 26; $37.31 billion on June 27. The reserves also rose to $37.54 billion on July 1 and continued the upbeat till the current position.
Further analysis showed that before the upbeat, the reserves had maintained a steady decline after closing last year at $42.85 billion.

It would be recalled that the CBN had on June 24, rolled out new guidelines for BDCs operation. The regulator raised the capital base for operators from N10 million to N35 million, plus additional caution deposit of N35 million to be kept with the CBN at zero interest rate.