Currency trading at N600/Pound Sterling, recession bites harder

folarin okunola

October 3, 2016 12:10 PM

Just last week Monday, the Naira was going for an already bad N440 per dollar.

Nigerian naira notes are seen in this picture illustration March 15, 2016

As Nigeria's foreign exchange problems continue to persist, the Naira dropped to a record low of N490 to a dollar on the parallel market as at Sunday, October 2, 2016.

To compound the Naira's predicament a little bit more is that it is also doing terribly against other currencies - far worse than against the dollar.

Over the weekend, one Pound Sterling cost a record N600 while the next big currency, the Euro, sold for N520 a piece - highlighting the latest in a long line of small victories and big losses that has characterized the Naira in recent times.

Just last week Monday, the Naira was going for an already bad N440 per dollar, raising alarms on the competence of the Buhari government as regards economic policy.

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In September, after a two-day bi-monthly meeting, the MPC had left the Monetary Policy Rate unchanged, ignoring calls for rate cuts from analysts, stakeholders and even the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.

“There is shortage of dollar supply. Diaspora remittances have dropped. This is why you can see the rate dropping at the parallel market,” an economic analyst Mr. Johnson Chukwu said, according to a Punch Online report.

Nigeria has already joined the ranks of oil-producing countries that have gone into recession, and with its foreign reserves depleting with alarming speed every passing day, Nigerians are in for a tough ride.

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