The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that the country’s foreign reserves has lost $178m as at the end of March 2021.

The reserves which stood at $34.99bn as of the end of March 1, dropped to $34.82bn as of the end of March 31 2021.

In February, the reserves fell from $36.19bn as of February 1 to $35.09bn as of February 26, a dropped by $1.1billion.

According to the fourth quarter economic report of the CBN, the performance of the external sector improved in Q4, 2020 despite the challenges of sluggish global recovery, weakened global demand, soaring second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and tense political environment in the United States.

Fourth Quarter Analysis

The apex bank stated that an estimated overall balance of payments surplus of $0.79bn was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020, from the $0.14bn recorded in the third quarter of 2020.

The deficit in the current account widened to $5.27bn in the review period, compared with $3.34bn in the previous quarter.

A net disposal of $2.5bn was recorded in the financial account, relative to $2.66bn in the preceding quarter.

However, the external reserves at end of December 2020 was $36.46bn, compared with $35.67bn at end September 2020, indicating an accretion of $0.79bn.

“This could finance 8.4 months of import of goods or 6.3 months of import of goods and services,” it stated.