Nigeria records trade surplus of N2.18trn in Q1 – NBS

Nigeria recorded a trade surplus of N2.18 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, making it the first quarter in two years that the country’s trade balance exceeded N2trn.

The foreign trade in goods report for the first quarter of 2018 released, yesterday, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that latest trade surplus is a 20.95 per cent increase from the N1.80trn recorded at the fourth quarter of 2017.

Daily Trust analysis also show that the N2.18trn recorded at the first quarter of this year is a 221.08 per cent increase from the N677.42 billion recorded at the first quarter of last year.

The report also shows that the total value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade was N7.21trn in the first quarter of 2018, which was a 19.74 per cent growth from the N6.02trn recorded in final quarter of 2017 and a 35.07 per cent growth from the N5.34trn recorded at the first quarter of last year.

The NBS explained that “the strong growth of total trade in the reviewing quarter was mainly driven by the strong increase in export.”

During period, Nigeria recorded total imports value of N2.52trn, being 19.22 per cent higher than the N2.11trn recorded in the final quarter of last year 8.04 per cent higher than the N2.33trn recorded at the first quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, the total export value amounted to N4.69trn in in the first quarter of 2018, representing a growth of 20.02 per cent over the N3.91trn recorded at the final quarter of last year the and 56.01 per cent over the N3.01 trn recorded at the first quarter of last year.

The report shows that Netherlands, India, Spain, the United States and France are Nigeria’s top export partners during the period under review.

In the first quarter of 2018, 20.5 per cent of Nigeria’s exports went to Netherlands, 18.2 per cent to India, 8.3 per cent to Spain, 8.2 per cent to the United States and 6.3 per cent to France.

However, Nigeria’s major import trading partners during the period include China, Netherlands, Belgium, the US and India.

In the first quarter of 2018, 21.1 per cent of Nigeria’s imports emanated from China, 12.1 per cent from Netherlands, 10.6 per cent from Belgium and 6.5 per cent from the US.