The country recorded a $20 million trade deficit in November
2022 as against a surplus of $50 million in the previous month of October 2022.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who disclosed this in its
Monthly Economic report said the deficit was a result of low crude oil export
receipts during the period.
The CBN also said that crude oil and gas export receipts
declined month-on-month (MoM) by 9.3 per cent to $3.9 billion in November 2022
from $4.3 billion in October 2022.
According to the CBN report, “Trade performance was weaker
than expected as trade deficit was recorded, owing largely to lower crude oil
export receipts. Provisional data shows that the trade balance swung into a
deficit of $0.02 billion from a surplus of $0.05 billion in the preceding
month.“
Aggregate export receipts declined by 7.7 per cent to $4.33
billion from $4.69 billion in October. Similarly, merchandise imports declined
by 6.2 per cent to $4.35 billion from $4.64 billion in October. Crude oil and
gas export receipts declined to $3.90 billion from $4.30 billion in October.
“In terms of share in total exports, crude oil and gas
accounted for 90.2 per cent. Of the total crude oil and gas export, oil
constitutes 84.6 per cent, while gas accounts for 15.4 per cent. Non-oil export
earnings rose by 16.9 per cent to $0.4 billion, from $0.35 billion in October,
due, largely to sustained favorable commodity prices at the international
market.
“This was due to the 7.0 per cent and 16.1 per cent increase in other non – oil products and re-exports to $0.38 billion and $0.02 billion from $0.36 billion and $0.01 billion respectively.”