Nigeria’s foreign trade grew as imports rose significantly and showed a marginal increase in export, resulting in an unfavourable trade balance in the third quarter of 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
The bureau disclosed this in its Foreign Trade Goods Statistics Q3 2021 published on Monday.
The NBS said total trade increased by 10.43 per cent in the third quarter, compared to the second quarter, and 58.59 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2020.
“Nigeria trade balance in Q3 2021 amounted to a deficit of N3,023.50 billion showing an increase of 26.53 per cent year on year resulting from a continued increase in imports,” it said.
Categorising the imported goods, the report said that the value of total imports stood at N8, 153.79 billion in Q3 2021 and was 17.32 per cent higher than Q2 2021 and 51.47 per cent higher than Q3 2020.
“The value of imported agricultural goods was 21.01 per cent higher than the value recorded in Q2, 2021 and 56.74 per cent higher than Q3 2020.
“The value of raw material imports was 9.08 per cent more than Q2, 2021, and 29.06 per cent more than the value in Q3 2020,” it said.
The NBS said the value of solid minerals imports in Q3 2021 increased by 10.93 per cent compared to Q2 2021 and 53.42 per cent compared to Q3 2020.
“The value of energy goods imports in Q3 2021 was 408.51 per cent more than Q2 2021 and 24.14 per cent more than Q3 2020.”
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
