FG earns N677.8 billion in second quarter - CBN

Federal Government retained revenue for the second quarter of this year stood at N677.88 billion, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Economic Report for the second quarter released yesterday said.

According to the report, the figure is above the receipts in the preceding quarter by 34.2 per cent, but lower than the quarterly budget estimate by 33 per cent.

The Federation Account accounted for 47.7 per cent of the total revenue. “Other Oil Revenue”, Federal Government Independent Revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Refund and Exchange Gain accounted for 30.0 per cent, 14.9 per cent, 4.1 per cent and 3.3 per cent.

Provisional data indicated that Federal Government expenditure for the second quarter stood at N1.76 trillion, which was above the provisional quarterly budget estimate and the level at the end of the preceding quarter by 12.8 and 58.1 per cent. This was attributed, mainly, to the rise in both recurrent and capital expenditure.

A breakdown of the expenditure showed that the recurrent component accounted for 72.6 per cent. Capital and statutory transfers constituted 19.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent.

Of the recurrent expenditure, the non-debt component represented 73.4 per cent. Debt service payments accounted for the balance of 26.6 per cent.

The fiscal operations of the Federal Government thus, resulted in an estimated deficit of N1.09 trillion, indicating an increase of 96.4 per cent above the provisional quarterly budget deficit of N555.49 billion.

The CBN data also showed that foreign exchange inflow and outflow through the apex bank amounted to $5.89 billion and $6.09 billion, resulting in a net outflow of US$0.20 billion.

Foreign exchange sales by the CBN to the authorised dealers amounted to $4.31 billion. The average exchange rate of the naira against the dollar at the inter-bank was N209.13 to dollar.

Also, assets and liabilities of the commercial banks stood at N31.23 trillion, at the end of the preceding quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 9.6 per cent over the level at the end of the preceding quarter.

The funds were sourced, mainly, from time, savings and foreign currency deposits, foreign liabilities and unclassified liabilities. The funds were used mainly to increase claims on private sector, acquire foreign and unclassified assets.

The CBN’s credit to the commercial banks rose by 34.2 per cent to N1,041.73 billion.

Banks’ specified liquid assets stood at N6.53 trillion, representing 34.9 per cent of their total current liabilities.

The gross external reserves, the report said, stood $26.51 billion, showing a decline of three per cent and 6.5 per cent, compared with the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2015. The development, relative to the preceding quarter, was due to increased sales of foreign exchange at the interbank market.

“A breakdown of the official external reserves showed that CBN reserves stood at $19.44 billion (73.3 per cent), Federation reserves, $2.45 billion (9.3 per cent), and the Federal Government reserves, $4.61 billion,” it said.

Provisional data showed that total non-oil export earnings stood at $576.97 million, fell by 43.2 per cent, below the level in the preceding quarter. The development, relative to the preceding quarter, was attributed mainly to the significant decline in receipts from manufactured and food products as well as minerals export.

“A breakdown by sectors showed that proceeds from the export of agricultural, minerals, industrial, manufactured products, food products and transport sectors stood at $196.87 million, $185.51 million, $84.34 million, $79.44 million, $30.68 million and $0.12 million respectively.

The percentage shares of agricultural, minerals, industrial, manufactured products, food products and transport sectors in the total non-oil export proceeds were 34.1 per cent, 32.2 per cent, 14.6 per cent, 13.8 per cent, 5.3 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively, the CBN said.

The invisible sector accounted for the bulk (34.1 per cent) of total foreign exchange disbursed , followed by the industrial sub-sector (22.5 per cent). The contributions of other sectors in a descending order included: minerals and oil sub-sector (23.3 per cent), manufactured products (11.3 per cent), food products (6.3 per cent), transport sector (1.7 per cent) and agricultural products (0.8 per cent).

The report said crude oil export stood at 1.09 million barrel per day (mbd) or 100.28 mb. This represented a decline of 20.4 per cent, compared with 1.37 mbd or 124.67 mb, recorded in the preceding quarter. It said supply disruptions owing to continued attacks on oil installations by vandals accounted for the decline in crude oil production.

It said the inflation rate at the end of the review quarter, on a year-on-year basis, was 16.5 per cent, compared with 12.8 and 9.2 per cent in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2015, respectively. On a 12-month moving average basis, the inflation rate was 11.4 per cent, indicating a 1.6 percentage points increase, above the level recorded in the preceding quarter.