Nigeria records N2.36trn trade surplus in Q2 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigeria recorded a trade surplus of N2.36trillion in the second quarter of 2018.

According to a report posted on its website on Thursday, Total value of trade for the second quarter of 2018 was recorded at N6.57trillion which indicates a -8.89 percent contraction from N7.21Trillion and marks the first fall in trade value since the second quarter of 2016.

The surplus realized shows 8.36 percentage increase from the N2.2trillion in the first quarter of 2018 and also a significant 399.8 percent increase from the first quarter of 2017 which had a surplus of N471.48billion.

Even though import and export numbers declined in the second quarter of 2018, the rise in surplus was mostly driven by a slower decline in export as opposed to the massive decline recorded in Nigeria’s imports.

According to the NBS report, crude oil remained the major export product gulping 85 percent of total export.

Despite a contraction of 4.9 percent over the year’s first quarter, total export was valued at N4.46trillion. Imports, quarter-on-quarter, the NBS said declined -16.3 percent to N2.11triillion during the period.

China accounted for 25.28 percent imports into the country, the largest for the quarter. The NBS said the major goods imported were machineries and transport equipment which gulped about N600.6billion, with total imports from China reported at N531.6billion. Mineral fuels accounted for 20.26 percent of total import, while chemical product imports was valued at 7.7 percent.

On the exports, 95.8 percent of total export was accrued to mineral products with the second largest being vegetable products recording a minuscule 1.5percent. Major countries Nigeria exported to in the second quarter of 2018 were India (16.2 percent), the Netherlands (10.3 percent) and South Africa being the only African country to make the top 5 with 8.1 percent.