The pressure on the nation’s currency, the naira, persisted on Monday as it lost N1.60k or 0.8 percent against the US dollar at the inter-bank market in spite of the foreign exchange auction by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as dollar sales by oil company.
After trading on Monday, the local currency closed at N189.20k/$ compared to N187.60k/$ traded on Friday last week, data from the Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ) revealed.
The CBN on Monday offered about $200 million to some deposit money banks that participated at its twice weekly Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) at the rate of N168/$.
A currency dealer told BusinessDay that there was dollar sales by an oil company specifically Shell which sold about $50 million.
At the parallel market, naira appreciated slightly by N0.50k/$ or 0.2 percent as it closed at N209.50k/$ as against N210 last week Friday.
Analysts had anticipated sustained pressure on the foreign exchange market this week against the backdrop of high dollar demand from end users as well as falling foreign exchange reserves.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted at the last meeting in January that significant pressure persisted in the foreign exchange market during 2014 resulting in further weakening of the naira across the three segments of the markets.
The exchange rate at the RDAS-spot opened at N157.34/US$ (including 1% commission) and closed at N164.08/US$, representing a depreciation of N12.34 or 4.28 percent.
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