Central Bank of Nigeria has said that the aggregate foreign exchange inflow into the country, in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased to $23.60billion from $21.46billion which was recorded the previous year.
In its report on Tuesday, ‘Foreign exchange flows through the economy’ the CNB said that for the fourth quarter, there was an increase in foreign exchange flows through the economy in the review quarter compared with the preceding quarter.
According to the apex bank, due to the reopening of the economies, the second wave of COVID-19 hampered a return to the levels experienced in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
Part of the report read, “Consequently, aggregate foreign exchange inflow in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $23.6billion, compared with $21.46billion and $36.32billion in the third quarter of 2020 and corresponding quarter of 2019, respectively.
This indicated an increase of 10.0 per cent over the previous quarter, but a decline of 35 per cent below the level in the corresponding quarter.
It added that foreign exchange outflow through the economy rose by 13.1 per cent above the third quarter of 2020 to $8.38billion in the review period but declined by 51.5 per cent below the level in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
Accordingly, foreign exchange flow through the economy resulted in a net inflow of $15.22billion in Q4, 2020, compared with the net inflow of $14.05billion and $19.05billion in the preceding quarter and the corresponding quarter of 2019 respectively.