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Economy: Senate worries, summons Adeosun today
By Ismail Mudashir
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki has decried the inability of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun to appear before the Senate yesterday, saying she must do so today.
Adeosun was supposed to brief the Senate yesterday on the monetary /fiscal policies adopted to salvage the current economic situation in the country and the level of implementation of the 2016 budget.
But at the middle of yesterday’s plenary, the Senate leader, Senator Ali Ndume moved a motion for the stepping down of her appearance, saying she was attending the Federal Executive Council.
Seconding the motion, the minority leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio expressed reservations over the excuse given by the Minister.
” I wonder why she did not remember that the FEC meeting would take place today (yesterday) when she assured the Senate on Tuesday of her appearance, “he said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday further downgraded the growth projections of Nigeria to negative in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO).
The outlook projected that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will now grow at -1.8 percent from the 2.7 percent projected in April, 2016. The Fund said the negative growth projection is necessary as the economy adjusts to foreign currency shortages as a result of lower oil receipts, low power generation, and weak investor confidence.
With the new projection, Nigeria will now join the league of countries like Russia and Brazil who were already at negative growth due to the similar challenges.
At the same time the inflation climbed to 16.5 percent in June, highest in the last 11 years.
Records indicated that many businesses are suffering the effects of the FOREX scarcity while some closing down.
In his remarks, the Senate President , Bukola Saraki said the comments made by the minority leader were very pertinent as regards the failure of the Minister to appear.
“The Minister must unfailingly appear before us today(yesterday) or tomorrow(today) before we proceed on our long recess because the issue at stake centres on monetary and fiscal policies being adopted by the federal government to salvage the current economic situation,”he said.
..Naira at record closing low as dollar shortages linger
Nigeria’s naira was stuck at a record closing low of 292.90 to the dollar on Wednesday after just one transaction was carried out, with the supply of dollars drying up and no intervention by the central bank, traders said.
The naira was unchanged from Tuesday’s close after one transaction worth $380,000 was made on Wednesday. That trade was done at 1150 GMT, more than three hours after the market opened.
The interbank market had seen just $300,000 traded on Tuesday, again in one transaction.
Traders had expected the central bank to intervene to ease dollar shortages, but that did not materialise. Commercial banks had been quoting to trade the dollar as low as 295.50 naira on Wednesday.
“Recent FX reforms have been enough to re-open the investment case for Nigeria, but there is still some uncertainty about the functioning of the market,” Alan Cameron, economist at Exotix said.
“The absence of volatility at N283/US$ was interpreted as a sign that administrative controls were still in place; it remains to be seen if those will be fully removed.”
Banks had been quoting the dollar at 281 to 285 naira after the central bank lifted its 16-month old peg of 197 naira to the dollar last month.
But the lack of liquidity has curbed activity, leaving the central bank as the main supplier of dollars, traders say.
On Monday, currency traders introduced a maximum resale premium on dollar trades to try to boost liquidity after a transaction made without spreads sent the naira tumbling to a record intra-day low.
Investors have welcomed the removal of currency controls but many are still steering clear until Africa’s biggest economy shows signs of a concrete recovery.
“Most investors would like to see a more liquid FX market before resuming purchases of local assets,” said Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.
“Given the significant discount of naira-settled futures, a number of offshore financial institutions and hedge funds could be tempted to get involved in the foreseeable future.”
A total of $579.3 million has been sold in futures contracts ranging between one month and one year. A one-month contract for $26.7 million due on July 27 was sold at 279 naira.
In non-deliverable forward markets, the one-month naira-dollar forward was quoted at 314.50. The one-year contract fell as low as 345.13 per dollar.