‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q3 2022)’ report released by the National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday said Nigeria’s total merchandise trade drooped by N1.24tn, from N12.84tn in the second quarter of 2022 to N11.59tn in the third quarter of 2022.
The fall in foreign trade was as a result of the drop in crude oil exports, which fell from N5.91tn in Q2 2022 to N4.66tn in Q3 2022.
The NBS said, “In q3 2022, Nigeria’s total trade stood at N11.59tn, this was lower than the value recorded in the second quarter of 2022 (N12.84tn) but was higher than the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2021 which stood at N10.47tn.
“Total Exports stood at N5.93tn of which Re-exports were N25.04bn, while total imports stood at N5.66tn. In the quarter under review, total exports declined by 19.89 per cent when compared to the second quarter of 2022 (N7.41tn) but it increased by 15.52 per cent of the value recorded in the third quarter of 2021 (N5.14tn).
“On the other hand, total imports increased by 4.22 per cent in the third quarter of 2022 when compared to the value recorded in the second quarter of 2022 (N5.44tn) and also grew by 6.16 per cent when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021 (N5.34tn).”
According to the statistics body, the top five export destinations in the period were: Spain, India, France, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The top five countries for imports were: China, The Netherlands, India, Belgium, and the United States of America.
The NBS disclosed that the majority of the commodities were exported by sea, with maritime accounting to N5.87tn or 98.88 per cent of total exports.
A recent report revealed that the nation’s crude oil output fell to 900, 000 barrels per day (b/d) in August, according to the Monthly Oil Market Report by Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The OPEC report revealed that the nation’s crude oil production dropped from 1 million b/d recorded in July, to 900, 000b/d in August.
