This brief update on the current stance of the Nigerian economy firstly discussed the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Reserves, starting with the depreciation of the Naira at the interbank foreign exchange market between June 17, 2016 and June 24,2016, following the commencement of the single market structure. The Naira, specifically depreciated from N199/$ (pegged rate) to N282/$ in the review week. The next article discussed the Crude Oil Price – stating that the OPEC weekly basket price increased marginally from $45.09 on June 17, 2016 to $45.95 on June 24, 2016. While Nigeria’s bonny light increased from $47.61 to $48.90 (with a peak of $49.2 on June 23, 2016) within the same period. The rise in oil price, amidst downward pressures, was likely driven by expectations that the UK would remain in the EU. The next article talks about the Stock Market – the All Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalization both appreciated (week-on-week) by 4.79% from June 17, 2016 to June 24, 2016. Specifically, the ASI increased from 29,247.27 points to 30,649.66 points and the Market Capitalization also appreciated from N10.05 trillion to close the week at N10.53 trillion. The next article discussed the Power sector analysis – which shows a 14.7% decrease in power generated –from 2437.7 megawatt to 2080.5
megawatt between June 17, 2016 and June 24, 2016, with a sharp fall on June 23, 2016 (to 55.5 megawatts). The decline in power supply is attributable to the recent gas shortage (due to damaged gas pipelines) yielding devastating effects on power generation.
