The naira recorded losses across foreign exchange (FX) market segments during the week as dollar liquidity weakened despite a continued rise in Nigeria’s external reserves.
Data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the naira depreciated by N5.08 week-on-week at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), closing at N1,363.83 per dollar on Thursday, the last trading day before the June 12 public holiday. This represented a 0.4 percent decline from N1,358.75 quoted on Thursday of the previous week.
On a day-on-day basis, the local currency weakened by N1.78 from N1,362.05 recorded on Wednesday. Over the four trading days of the week, the naira lost 99 kobo from N1,362.84 quoted on Monday.
Trading activity at the interbank FX market also slowed. The number of deals declined by 30.58 percent week-on-week to 84 transactions on Thursday from 121 deals recorded a week earlier. Compared with Wednesday’s 109 deals, activity fell by 22.94 percent.
Turnover at the interbank segment dropped sharply to $70.42 million on Thursday from $128.17 million on the corresponding day of the previous week, representing a 45.06 percent decline.
