Financial market experts at Standard Bank had predicted that Nigeria would post a current account surplus of 11.2 per cent of her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year.

Current account is one of the primary components of balance of payments (BoP). It is one of the two major metrics of the nature of a country's foreign trade. A current account surplus increases a country's net foreign assets.

Standard Bank stated this in a report titled: “African Markets Revealed, January 2012,” a copy of which was e-mailed to THISDAY Wednesday.

The report showed that Nigeria’s current account to GDP stood at 8.2 per cent as at the end of 2011.

However, the international bank expressed concern that official trade statistics had remained problematic in the economy, “because of the continued disconnect between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) time series and an unexplained surge in imports in 2010.”

It argued: “This spike pushed down the aggregate trade balance and current account surplus to record low. Unlike the NBS data, CBN figures point to an improvement in the trade balance in 2011. We expect the import discrepancy to be eventually addressed and see Nigeria posting a current account surplus of 11.2 per cent of GDP in 2012.

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