Nigeria Trade Balance Turns Positive In Q4 As Exports Jump

LAGOS, March 4 (Reuters) - Nigeria's trade balance
turned positive in the fourth quarter of 2016 after
exports rose by more than half, the national
bureau of statistics said on Saturday, the first
positive reading since the same quarter a year
ago.

But Africa's largest economy shrank 1.5 percent
over the course of the full year due to lower oil
revenues and a shortage of hard currency, its first
annual contraction in quarter of a century.

With limited manufacturing capacity, Nigeria
imports most of what it consumes. Fourth-quarter
imports rose 46.4 percent from the previous year
to 2.31 trillion naira ($7.6 billion), the statistics
bureau said.

But exports more than compensated for that rise,
jumping 53.5 percent in value terms from a year
earlier to 2.98 trillion naira, the statistics bureau
said.

The balance of trade for the fourth quarter was 671
billion naira. The net trade balance stood at minus
290 billion naira ($953 million) for all of 2016. ($1
= 304.2000 naira)

(Reporting by Paul Carsten;
Editing by Hugh Lawson)
© Thomson Reuters 201

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