Nigeria’s foreign reserves stood at $36.5 billion currently, down 18.3 percent from a year ago, as the central bank continued to spend billions of dollars to defend the naira, Governor Godwin Emefiele said on Tuesday.
Emefiele said reserves could cover seven months of imports. They stood at $44.67 billion on November 25, 2013.
The slump has been gradual.
Checks showed that the country’s foreign reserves shed $1.178 billion or 3.09 per cent at the end of May. The level declined from $38.138 billion at the end of April to $36.959 billion last month, its lowest in recent times.
The decline in May represented a departure from the previous month, when the reserve grew by a slim $314.472 million or 0.83 per cent from $37.834 billion at the end of March.
On a year-to-date basis, the nation’s reserves lost $6.65 billion or 15.25 per cent from the $43.61 billion reported at the end of December, when it stood at $43.61 billion.
The hemorrhage is even more significant, when the latest figure is compared with that of the corresponding period of last year, which means that the nation’s reserve pool has depreciated by $11.45 billion or 23.65 per cent.
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