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The National Bureau of Statistics released its Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report for the second quarter of 2018 on Thursday, showing that the country’s external trade declined by 8.9 percent from N7.21 billion recorded in the first quarter of the year. Foreign trade in Q2 stood at N6.57 billion.

However, on a year-on-year basis, Nigeria’s foreign trade rose by 14.56 percent compared with the N5.73 billion recorded in the Q2 2017.

According to the NBS report, the contraction of total trade in the quarter under review was mainly driven by the decline in both imports and exports.

Total exports in the quarter under review was valued at N4.46 billion, a 4.9 percent contraction over the first quarter (N4.70 billion), and a 43.8 percent increase compared with the corresponding quarter of 2017.

Similarly, the total import component declined by 16.3 percent to N2.11 billion compared with the N2.52 billion recorded in Q1 2018.

According to the report, Nigeria recorded a trade surplus of N2.36 billion in Q2 2018, representing an increase from the N2.17 recorded in the first quarter of the year.