Naira Falls Against US Dollar (See New Rate)

The Nigerian Naira depreciated on Friday, following limited forex liquidity in most major segments of the foreign exchange market. The local currency dropped N2.24 against the US dollar to trade at N308.69 at the interbank market, from Thursday closing of N306.93 against the greenback. While at the Bureau De Change segment, the Naira closed at N420 to the dollar, N550 to the U.K. pound and N465 against the Euro single currency. At the parallel market, the local currency lost N2 from Thursday’s N423 to trade at N425 against the US dollar on Friday. Both the Pound and Euro were traded at N545 and N470 respectively. Traders have said despite the decrease in demand for the greenback for school fees payment this summer that the Naira continued to fall. This, they attributed to the surge in demand for dollars for importation, as it outstripped the available liquidity in the market. Samed Olukoya, a Foreign Exchange Research Analyst at Investor King Ltd. said “the situation is pervasive and require more than conventional means to curb, CBN needs to be proactive. Intermittent intervention won’t do much henceforth.” However, the high exchange rate continued to weigh on consumer prices as the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, showed that the inflation rate jumped to 17.6 percent on a yearly basis in August – from 17.1 percent recorded in July. Accordingly, businesses continued to downsize to control costs, while seeking alternative means of production locally. So far, unemployment rate remained 13.3 percent, while youth unemployment/underemployment is 49.5 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.