Nigeria's total external merchandise trade decreased to about N5 trillion in the first quarter of 2013 from about N7.1 trillion recorded in the previous quarter.
According to the Foreign Trade Statistics for the first quarter of 2013, which the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released yesterday, the N2.08 trillion or 29 per cent dip in external merchandise was blamed on a 41.4 per cent fall in the value of exports from about N5.8 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2012 to about N3.4 trillion in the first quarter of this year.
The NBS said the period under review had been characterised by declining exports and rising imports, which gave rise to a weak trade balance.
Conversely, imports increased by 27.4 per cent to N1.6 trillion from N1.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year.
When combined with the decrease in exports, there is a trade imbalance of about N2.7 trillion or 60.8 per cent in the period under review.
However, a breakdown of the trade statistics showed that the United States retained its slot as the country's leading export partner with N414.1 billion followed by The Netherlands with N386 billion, while Brazil is ranked third with a trade volume of N343 billion.
India came fourth with N332.6 billion followed by Spain, which accounted for N327.6 billion in the first quarter.
Ironically, China, which is not listed among the first 10 countries in terms of Nigeria's export destination accounted for about N335.7 billion of the country's imports, while the United Kingdom, which occupied the eighth position as regards exports to that country, is second on Nigeria's import list with about N98.8 billion.
Nigeria's imports from the US are put at about N84.2 billion in the first quarter, while imports from India accounted for N50.6 billion.
No comments:
Post a Comment