The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday evening, announced that the current economic recession in the country, would end by the third quarter of this year.
This was as he revealed that the nation’s foreign reserve stood at $31 billion as at present, noting that this was sufficient enough to continue to improve on the foreign exchange trend, until the situation returned to normality.
Emefiele, who stated this while briefing Journalists after a closed-door session with the leadership of the Senate, said that with the appreciation of the foreign reserve, the country was now equipped to bring the recession to an end, as quickly as never anticipated by most Nigerians.
He also expressed delight that the inflation in the economy was getting lower, while the value of the naira was appreciating vis-a-vis the dollar, following the unrelenting effort of the bank.
“I am also happy to inform you that this intervention has fortunately resulted in a downward trend in the parallel market price of foreign exchange, from as high as N525 to as low as N370. Right now, it hovers between N370 and N380.He said: “Actually, the Senate President invited us to come and brief the Parliament in a closed session, and providing some updates about the foreign exchange markets. You will all have observed that in the last two months, the Central Bank has been involved in some form of intensive intervention in the foreign exchange market.
“I think it’s an opportunity for me to say that we are going to continue this intervention, because the reserve looks very good.
“As I speak to you, our reserve stands at above $31 billion, and that provides us enough of firepower or ammunition to be able to defend the currency, and we will do so with all intensity to ensure that foreign exchange is procured by everybody.
“You want to import raw materials, you will get foreign exchange; you want to import plant and equipment, you will get foreign exchange; you want to pay school fees or you are a small business that wants to buy foreign exchange for you to import your small items, you will procure foreign exchange.
“And indeed, we have started to see a downward trend even in prices, and you must have also observed that inflation is also trending downward. We are very much optimistic that by the end of the second quarter or latest third quarter, we should be out of recession that we are in right now.
“I think what is important is that last week we brought out an announcement, which is meant to encourage our foreign investor community to get involved as well in the foreign exchange market.
“It is the market or window that is opened for them to inflow their foreign exchange, and come into the market on what we called a willing buyer, willing seller basis, in which case there will be no form of any price intervention by anybody, and indeed, even including the Central Bank.
“Indeed, with the kind of firepower that we have, we are also going to play in that market to ensure that as the prices move on based on the managed float regime that we run, that we should be able to control the price based on willing buyer and willing seller basis.”
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