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Nigeria records N139 billion trade deficit in first quarter 2020

09 Jun 2020, 05:20 pm
Financial Nigeria
Nigeria records N139 billion trade deficit in first quarter 2020

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The NBS said the total value of Nigeria's trade in Q1 2020 stood at N8.3 trillion.

Containers on a ship

A new report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that Nigeria recorded a trade deficit of N138.98 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, marking two consecutive quarters of negative balance of trade. According to the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q1 2020) report, released on Tuesday, the consecutive quarters of negative trade balances occurred against the backdrop of significant slowdown in global economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused countries to impose travel and quarantine restrictions.

The NBS said the total value of Nigeria's trade in Q1 2020 stood at N8.3 trillion. This represents a 17.94 per cent decline in trade compared to Q4 2019, but an increase of 0.80 per cent relative to Q1 2019. Total imports stood at N4.2 trillion (or 50.8 per cent of aggregate trade value), while the export component totaled N4.1 trillion (or 49.2 per cent of the total trade). While the value of imports surpassed exports by N138.98 billion in Q1 2020, the deficit in preceding quarter was N579.1 billion.  

According to the NBS, the value of total exports decreased by 14.42 per cent relative to the previous quarter and 9.98 per cent when compared to Q1 2019. Total imports declined by 21.08 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis; however, it increased by 13.99 per cent year-on-year.

Nigeria's crude oil export in the first quarter of this year was valued at N2.9 trillion, representing 72.12 per cent of total exports in the reporting period. According to the statistics agency, the value of crude oil export in the last quarter was 18.86 per cent less than the value recorded in Q4 2019 and 12.80 per cent lower than the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, non-crude oil exports stood at N1.1 trillion, representing 27.9 per cent of total exports during Q1 2020.

A sectoral analysis shows that trade in the agricultural goods sector stood at N387.7 billion (or 4.67 per cent of the overall trade), of which exported agricultural goods were valued at N126.3 billion, while the country's imported agricultural goods stood at N261.4 billion in the review period. The deficit in agricultural goods trade in Q1 2020 was N135.1 billion.

The value of manufactured goods trade in the last quarter was N3.1 trillion (or 37.40 of total trade). While the total export component amounted to N444.5 billion, the value of imported manufactured goods was N2.7 trillion. The trade deficit in this sector stood at N2.3 trillion in Q1 2020.

Total trade in Nigeria's solid mineral goods was worth N22.98 billion in Q1, comprising an import component of N21.4 billion and export component of N1.6 billion, resulting in a deficit of N19.8 billion.

Nigeria's largest export destinations in Q1 2020 were India (15.61 per cent), Spain (9.87 per cent), Netherlands (9.72 per cent), South Africa (7.82 per cent), and Cameroon (7.39 per cent). China accounted for Nigeria's largest imports in the review period, accounting for a share of 26.28 per cent, followed by Netherlands (11.14 per cent), United States (10.45 per cent), India (7.92 per cent) and Belgium (6.11 per cent).


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