27 January 2017, Sweetcrude, Houston — The local and international financial markets products and services update.
NIGERIA: The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday stated that no amount of criticism and blackmail from “self-centred individuals” would make it change its current flexible foreign exchange rate policy. The apex bank said this in a statement titled: ‘Nigeria’s current economic situation: Our case’, signed by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor. The bank said while it was not opposed to the fact that Nigerians had the right to express their views, a majority of such views had become attacks on its policy rather than proffering solutions. The statement read in part that “The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed with great concern the continued and unwarranted attack on its policies by a group of Nigerians, whose real interests, findings have shown, are anything near altruistic, but rather self-serving and unpatriotic”.
FX: NGN Spot market traded a range of $/NGN 304.75 – 315.50.
FIXED INCOME: Bill market recovered from Wednesday’s selling as more cash comes in from the OMO maturity. We had a re-run of Wednesday’s OMO. Appetite was healthy as the market anticipates that OMOs will soon stop following the dovish MPC comments. Stop rates were maintained and N217.3bn popped up across the 252day and 336day papers. Across the bond curve, there was some profit taking; besides this, the market was fairly quiet.
U.K.: Strong consumer spending helped the UK’s economy to grow faster than expected at the end of last year. The economy grew by 0.6% in the October-to-December period, the same rate as in the previous two-quarters, according to an initial estimate from the Office for National Statistics. The figure indicates that the feared economic slowdown following the Brexit vote has not materialised. For 2016 as a whole, the economy grew by 2%, down from 2.2% in 2015. “Strong consumer spending supported the expansion of the dominant services sector,” said ONS statistician Darren Morgan. “Although manufacturing bounced back from a weaker third quarter – both it and construction remained broadly unchanged over the year as a whole.” The quarterly growth figure was slightly better than the 0.5% rate most economists had expected.
E.U.: Import prices in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, increased at the fastest pace in almost five years in December, adding to signs that inflation pressures may be stronger than anticipated. Prices were up an annual 3.5 percent, the Federal Statistics OfficE said on Friday.
COMMODITIES: Oil headed for a second weekly increase as OPEC and other producing nations continued with output cuts to reduce bloated global inventories and stabilise the market. Brent for March settlement lost 8 cents to $56.16 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract added 2.1 percent to close at $56.24.
Macro Economic Indicators
Inflation rate (Y-o-Y) for December 2016, 18.55%
Monetary Policy Rate current 14.00%
FX Reserves (Bn $) as at Jan 25, 2017, 27.828
Money Market Highlights
NIBOR (%)
O/N 6.5000
30 Day 18.0655
90 Day 19.9078
180 Day 23.1318
LIBOR (%)
USD 1 Month 0.77611
USD 2 Months 0.84556
USD 3 Months 1.03733
USD 6 Months 1.35683
USD 12 Months 1.06675
Benchmark Yields
Tenor Maturity Yield (%)
91d 20-Apr-17 14.58
182d 20-Jul-17 19.06
364d 21-Dec-17 21.87
2y 29-Jun-19 16.24
3y 13-Feb-20 16.56
5y 15-Jul-21 16.54
Indicative Currency Exchange Rates
Bid Offer
USDNGN 314.50 315.00
EURUSD 1.0595 1.0797
GBPUSD 1.2466 1.2668
USDJPY 114.93 114.96
USDCHF 0.99435 1.0045
GBPEUR 1.1647 1.1851
USDZAR 13.2567 13.4601
JPYNGN 2.6897 2.7903
CHFNGN 314.55 316.24
EURNGN 336.48 337.84
GBPNGN 397.44 398.84