Research Document: NESG 2022 Q3 Foreign Trade Alert, December2022

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 2022 8:00 PM

External Trade rose 10% (year-on-year), whilst the Trade surplus narrowed sharply in 2022 Q3

Nigeria’s external trade value increased by 10.5% (year-on-year) to N11.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2022 from N10.5 trillion in the corresponding period of 2021. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the value of external trade in 2022 Q3 represents a decline of 9.4% when compared with its level in the second quarter of 2022 (N12.8trillion), thereby bucking the upward trends in the third quarter of 2020 (see Figure 1 in the attached document). Cumulatively, the external trade value stood at N37.4 trillion in the first three quarters of 2022, representing a 33.1% increase relative to its level in the corresponding period of 2021 (N28.1 trillion). The value of merchandise exports narrowly outpaced the merchandise import value(see Figure 2 in the attached document), resulting in a trade surplus of N269.3 billion in 2022 Q3. This represents a sharp drop compared to the trade surplus of N1.2 trillion and N2 trillion posted in the first and second quarters of 2022, respectively (see Figure 3 in the attached document). The decline in trade surplus in 2022Q3 was largely due to a fall in exports and a slight jump in imports.