Naira on Tuesday depreciated against the US dollar at all market segments by N0.01k/$, N0.15k/$ and N1.00/$ at the official, inter-bank and parallel markets respectively.
After trading on Tuesday, the local currency closed at N155.75/$ as against N155.74/$ traded last week. At the inter-bank market, naira closed at N163.10/$ compared to N162.95/$ the previous day and at the parallel market, it closed at N169/$ as against N168/$ last week.
Analysts attributed the naira depreciation to increased demand for the green back by importers and other end users for their financial obligations.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday offered a total of $350 million but sold a total of $349.8 million to 22 deposit money banks at the rate of N155.75/$ at the bi-weekly Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS).
The NGN weakened 0.1% against the USD in the Inter-bank (-1.7% YTD) on 15 September. Despite robust USD inflows from state-owned agencies (mainly NNPC) last week, strong import demand resulting in large import bills undermined NGN performance, Kunle Ezun, analyst at Ecobank Nigeria said.
Source : BusinessDay