Nigeria records trade deficit of N125.77billion in Q1 of 2020, says NBS

Nigeria has recorded a trade deficit of N125.77billion in the First Quarter(Q1) of 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed, according to a news report by Naija247 News.

Its report titled Commodity price indices and terms of trade Q1" posted on its website on Wednesday said Nigeria exported items worth N1.8trillion in the period under review.

The report said in the Q1 2020, the country spent N1.9trillion on the importation of commodities. It indicates that import was higher than export by N124.77billion.

In other words, the difference from the trade transaction was N124.77bilion, which is otherwise known as the trade deficit.

The five countries the report listed were India, China, Spain, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

NBS, in the report, said in the period under review, it exported commodities worth N637.53 to India and imported items of about N395. 53 billion from there.

According to the report, Nigeria exported N111. 06 billion commodities from China and imported N1.1trillion worth of items from there in the Q1.

To Spain, the report noted that Nigeria exported commodities worth N402.9 billion and recorded import of N39.9 billion.

The NBS said export to the Netherlands in the quarter under review was N395. 9 billion while import record was N470.11 billion.

Nigeria said that the report, exported commodities worth N319.47 billion to South Africa from where she imported N40.6 billion worth of commodities.

The NBS report noted that "Between January and March 2020 (Jan 2018=100): Footwear, headgear, umbrellas, sunshades, whips, etc.

"The All commodity group export price index decreased by 0.59 percent due to decreases in Boilers, Overall, all products terms of trade (TOT) index rose 0.26 percent driven by an increase in the prices of Plastic, rubber, and articles thereof, Vegetable products and Wood and articles of wood, wood charcoal, and articles, " report quotes.