Nigeria’s Foreign Trade Slumps In Q2 2020

Nigeria’s external trade slumped to N6.24 trillion in the second quarter of the year (Q2 2020) from N8.59 trillion in the preceding quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The figures represent a 27.30 per cent decline within the period under review, the statistics agency noted.

According to the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q2 2020) report released by the NBS, the nation recorded a trade deficit of N1.80 trillion, marking the third consecutive quarter of negative trade balance.

Nigeria’s total trade within the year stood at N14.82 trillion, indicating a drop of 11.96 per cent compared to half-year 2019.

Similarly, the report showed a drop of 27.46 per cent when compared to Q2 2019 when the country recorded N8.61 trillion in trade.

Further details showed that the value of imports stood at N4.02 trillion, representing a drop of 10.69 per cent in Q2 compared to N4.50 trillion recorded in Q1.

It, however, showed an increase of 0.39 per cent, when placed against that of the year before.

According to the NBS, the value of exports amounted to N2.21 trillion of total trade, indicating a decline of 45.64 per cent compared to the N4.08 trillion posted in the preceding quarter and 51.73 per cent compared to Q2 2019.

The report also showed that trade in goods deficit stood at N421.3 billion in Q1 compared to N579.06 billion recorded in Q4 2019.

Details

The value of imported agricultural goods rose by 59.01 per cent in the review period compared to 66.28 per cent in Q1 2019. Within this period, raw material imports increased by 85.69 per cent in Q2 compared to Q1.

On the other hand, total exports fell by 45.64 per cent in Q2 as agricultural goods export dropped by 38.2 per cent. The NBS stated that raw material goods export recorded a decrease of 56.2 per cent in the period under review.

Details of the total trade in agricultural goods showed that it stood at N493.7 billion, of which exported agricultural goods accounted for N78.1 billion.

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Trade in raw material stood at N585.4 billion with import and export components valued at N570.6 billion and N14.8 billion respectively.

Within the period under review, Spain, India, France, China and the Netherlands were Nigeria’s five major trade (exports) partners.

In the same vein, the NBS said crude oil exports accounted for 70% (N1.55 trillion) of the total value of exports in the period under review.