By Dipo Olowookere

Latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown that the country’s foreign reserves have depreciated to $46.86 billion.

This was the amount left in the nation’s external purse as at Monday, August 6, 2018.

Business Post gathered that the reserves depreciated to this level from $47 million as at Friday, August 3, 2018.

There had been a free-fall in the external reserves in recent times with price of crude oil, Nigeria’s major source of forex earnings, relatively stable around $74 per barrel at the global market.

Business Post reports further that as at August 1, 2018, the amount in the external reserves was $47.1 billion.

An analysis done by us indicated that the reserves have suffered 0.44 percent loss since the beginning of the month of August 2018.

However, when compared with the same period of August 7, 2017, the foreign reserves have gained 50.44 percent year-on-year.

As at August 7, 2017, the amount in the nation’s external reserves was $31.2 billion. It rose to that level from $30.9 billion as at August 1, 2017.

Since early last year, precisely in April, the central bank has made it a duty to dip into the reserves to strengthen the Naira at the foreign exchange market.

This has kept the local currency relatively stable at N360 per Dollar at the black market after exchanging at over N500 per Dollar in February last year.

Business Post reports that the South Africa's net foreign reserves fell slightly to $42.440 billion in July from $42.447 billion in June, according to the Reserve Bank on Tuesday.

Also, data from the country’s central bank showed that the gross reserves declined to $50.511 billion from $50.582 billion in the same period.

In addition, the forward position, which represents the central bank's unsettled or swap transactions, decreased to $1.790 billion in July from $1.809 billion the previous month.

Nigeria and South Africa are the two biggest economies in the continent of Africa.

https://www.businesspost.ng/2018/08/08/nigerias-external-reserves-fall-to-46-8b/