Nigeria’s external reserves dropped by $565 million from $36.198 billion earned as of February 1, to $35.633 billion as of February 15.
The latest figures were disclosed by the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday.
The CBN’s report also shows the reserves, which began the year at $35.65 billion rose to $36.52 billion as of January 25.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the last Monetary Policy Meeting in January said, “On the external reserves position, the committee noted the increase in the level of external reserves, which stood at $36.23bn as at 21st January 2021 compared with $34.94bn at the end of November 2020.
“This reflected improvements in crude oil prices, partial global economic recovery amid optimism over the discovery and distributions of COVID-19 vaccines by most developed economies.”
In its latest monthly economic report, CBN said despite the increase in economic activities globally and positive news of a COVID-19 vaccine, the external earnings declined due to lower foreign exchange receipts and sustained intervention to stabilize the exchange rate.
However, it said the external reserves position could cover 6.7 months of import for goods and services or 8.1 months of import for goods only, using the import figure for the third quarter of 2020.
