Nigeria recorded trade balance deficit of N1.8tn at the end of the second quarter.
The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its ‘Foreign trade in goods statistics’ report for the second quarter, which was released on Wednesday.
With the deficit, the country has recorded the third consecutive quarter of negative trade balance.
The NBS statistics also revealed that the value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade stood at N6.24tn in the second quarter of the year.
Part of the report reads, “This indicated a sharp fall of 27.30 per cent in Q2, 2020 compared to Q1, 2020 and 27.46 per cent compared to Q2, 2019.
“The value of total trade year-to-date amounted to N14.82tn, indicating a drop of 11.96 per cent compared to half-year 2019.
“The import component was valued at N4.02tn representing a drop of 10.69 per cent in Q2, 2020 against the level recorded in Q1, 2020 but an increase of 0.39 per cent year-on-year.
“The export component accounted for N2.21tn of the total trade, indicating a decline of 45.64 per cent against the value recorded in Q1, 2020 and 51.73 per cent compared to Q2, 2019.
“Consequently, the trade balance recorded a deficit of
N1.8tn, marking the third consecutive quarter of negative trade balance.”
This compares with trade in goods deficit of N421.3bn recorded in Q1, 2020 and N579.06bn recorded in Q4 2019.
According to the NBS, in Q3, 2019, increase in exports coupled with the decrease in imports led to a positive trade balance of N1.38tn during the period.
Crude oil, Nigeria’s dominant export, accounted for N2.94tn representing 72.12 per cent of total exports in Q1, 2020.
The value of crude oil export was 18.86 per cent less than the value recorded in Q4, 2019 and 12.80 per cent lower than the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
Non crude oil exports was valued at N1.13tn representing 27.9 per cent of total exports during the period under review.
The value of total imports amounted to N4.02tn in Q2, 2020.
This represented a drop of 10.69 per cent against the level recorded in Q1,2020 but an increase of 0.39 per cent year-on-year.
The year to date import value amounted to N8.52tn, or 10.58 per cent over half year 2019.
The fall in value of import in Q2, 2020 could be attributed to the decrease in the value of mineral fuels (N1.03tn or 82.35 per cent), machinery and transport equipment (N147.2bn or 8.43 per cent) and miscellaneous manufactured articles (N157.5bn or 47.94 per cent) against their respective values in quarter 1, 2020.
The structure of imports under this category showed that machinery and transport equipment accounted for the largest share of imports at N1.59tn or 39.7 per cent of total imports.
It was followed by chemicals and related products valued at N776.3bn or 19.30 per cent and food and live animals worth N648.6bn or 16.1 per cent among others.
During the quarter, Nigeria imported goods mainly from Asia, valued at N2.12tn or 52.8 per cent.
Other imports originated from Europe, valued at N1.07tn or 26.6 per cent, while imports from America and Africa amounted to N605.2bn or 15 per cent and N174bn or 4.3 per cent respectively.
Import from Oceania stood at N50.6bn or 1.3 per cent, while goods valued at N31.1bn originated from ECOWAS.
