Naira Appreciates to N1609 Per Dollar

The naira appreciated marginally against the United States dollar to N1,609 on Wednesday at the official market from N1,615.94 recorded the previous day.

This indicates an increase of N6 or 0.37 percent.

The slight improvement came on the heels of series of foreign exchange guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Monetary Policy Committee on Tuesday raised the Monetary Policy Rate, also known as benchmark interest rate, by 400 basis points to 22.75 percent on Tuesday from 18.75 percent in July 2023.

The MPC also adjusted the asymmetric corridor around the MPR to +100/-700 from +100/-300 basis points, raised the Cash Reserve Ratio from 32.5 percent to 45.0 percent, and retained the Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent.

However, the expected impact of the rate hike has not yet reflected on the official foreign exchange as the naira depreciated by 2.04 percent after the dollar was quoted at N1,615.94 on Tuesday compared to N1,582.94 quoted on Monday at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, data from the FMDQ securities exchange indicated.

Government officials have maintained that the naira is currently undervalued.

Furthermore, data from FMDQ showed that the naira dropped to N1,615.94/dollar on Tuesday from N1,582.94 on Monday.

This represents a N30 or 2.0 percent depreciation compared to the N1,582.94 recorded at the close of trading on Monday.

During spot trading on Wednesday, the intraday high was N1,660, depreciating from N1,778/$ on Tuesday and N1,805/$1 on Monday. But, the intraday low increased marginally to N1,401 from N1,300 on Tuesday and N1,301/$ on Monday.

However, the daily FX market turnover further declined to $119.14m from $154.16m recorded on Tuesday and $166.58m on Monday.

Punch/Hauwa Abu