The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has promised Nigerians that the country will come out of its present economic recession by the end of August, saying this is based on emerging economic indicators being observed by the nation’s economic team.

He said also that based on the recent indices released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), there is a confirmed reduction in the inflation rate, downward trend of the dollar in the parallel market as regards the value of naira, which he said is now reduced from N525/$1 to N380/$1.

Emefiele made these disclosures at the National Assembly while responding to questions from journalists shortly after a closed door meeting with the leadership of the Senate, where he also revealed that Nigeria’s external reserve has risen from $27billion to over $31billion.

“Central Bank has been involved in some form of intensive interventions in the foreign exchange market and this has fortunately resulted in a downward trend in the parallel market price of foreign exchange from as higher as N525 to as low as N370. Right now it hovers between N370 to N380.

“I think it is an opportunity for me to say that we are going to continue this intervention because the reserve looks very good as I speak to you, our reserve stands at above $31 billion and that provides us enough of firepower or ammunition to be able to defend the currency and we will do so with all intensity to ensure that foreign exchange is procured by everybody.

“We have started to see a downward trend even in prices of goods and commodities and you must have also observed that inflation is also trending downward as confirmed by NBS. We are very much optimistic that by the end of the second quarter, very latest third quarter this year, we should be out of recession that we are in right now”, Emefiele said.

While promising that the downward trend in the parallel market in favour of the naira would be sustained by the CBN through its needed interventions and in particular, through the policy of willing buyer and willing seller basis, he said “I think what is important is that last week we brought out an announcement which is meant to encourage our foreign investor community to get involved as well in the foreign exchange market.

“It is the market or window that is opened for them to inflow their foreign exchange and come into the market on what we call a willing buyer, willing seller basis, in which case there will be no form of any price intervention by anybody and indeed, even including the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Indeed, with the kind of firepower that we have, we are also going to play in that market to ensure that as the prices move on based on the managed float regime that we run, that we should be able to control the price based on willing buyer and willing seller basis”, he explained. (Peoples Daily)

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