Naira Drops To N173/$1Despite CBN Intervention

Naira Drops To N173/$1Despite CBN Intervention

Source:Leadership News

The value of the naira dropped by 1.21
per cent to N173.20 to the dollar on the
interbank market yesterday despite the
intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN).

The CBN has been intervening at the
foreign exchange market asides its twice
weekly Retail Dutch Auctions which holds
on Mondays and Wednesdays as part of
measures to support the naira.

The naira which sold last week Friday at
N171.1 to the dollar dropped in value as
banks avoided the foreign exchange
auction. Dealers said the CBN asked
lenders to bid for $2 million each in a
move to shore up the local currency, but
commercial banks avoided the forex
auction as the central bank was
restricting the re-sale margins to curb
speculation.

As at last Friday, the external reserves of
the country had dropped by 2.25 per cent
month-to-date, as the CBN continued to
dip into it to defend the naira.
The reserves which were $38.459 billion
at the beginning of the month had
dropped to $37.594 billion as at
November 14, 2014 even as oil prices
continued to fall.

The coordinating minister for the economy
and minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala has announced a revision of the
benchmark oil price to $73 per barrel.
She said the 2015-2017 Medium Term
Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which
was recently submitted to the National
Assembly had been revised. InThe MTEF,
which had proposed a benchmark of $78
per barrel of oil for the 2015 budget, is
now revised downwards to $73 per barrel
and would be re-submitted to the
National Assembly for approval.