Foreign reserves now $32.9bn

FOREIGN reserves now stand at $32.93 billion, hitting their lowest level for seven weeks.The reserves had been under pressure, with government selling dollars to prop up the naira amid low accretion from oil revenues due to increased government spending.The latest figure is the lowest since the $32.84 billion registered on November 11 and was up by 2.03 per cent from a year earlier.Forex reserves peaked this year at $36.48 billion on March 4 and hit a trough of $31.31 billion on October 5.Meanwhile, the interbank lending rates eased further this week to an average of 14.08 per cent, compared with 14.33 per cent last week, as naira cash flows from oil revenues to government agencies boosted liquidity in the system to lower borrowing costs.Dealers said market liquidity rose by about N168.58 billion in the week, from the release of about N79.68 billion in allocations from excess crude accounts to state and local governments and N88.9 billion from matured treasury bills.The secured open buy back (OBB) rate was slightly higher at 13.75 per cent, from 13.50 per cent last week, 1.75 percentage points above the Central Bank's 12 per cent benchmark rate and 3.75 percentage points above the standing deposit facility rate.Overnight placement fell to 14 per cent, from 14.50 per cent last week, while call money dropped to 14.50 per cent, compared with 15 per cent."The market was impacted positively by the additional cash inflows and low trading activities among banks because of the need to tidy up their books for the year end," one dealer said.Dealers said the market opened on Friday on a positive balance of 244.12 billion naira, compared with 97.58 billion naira the Friday before.
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