By Moses Patience Chat
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that profits from oil production did little in helping to lift Nigeria’s trade balance in 2022, even as the country’s balance of trade position returned to deficit from a surplus.
The Apex Bank disclosed this in its Monthly Economic Report in which it also stated that the deficit was an outcome of low crude oil export receipts during the period. CBN further explained 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 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. It also stated that 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, while 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, and of the total crude oil and gas export, oil constitutes 84.6 per cent, while gas accounts for 15.4 per cent. On its part, 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,” said the CBN report.