Despite the recent depreciation of the Naira against the dollar, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has expressed optimism that the excessive volatility of the naira may be behind us.
He even revealed that the apex bank was “relatively happy” with the progress made in stabilizing the naira.
Ripples Nigeria reports that the naira for the second consecutive day this week slumped to N1,500/$1 on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
However, Cardoso, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, expressed optimism that the worst may be over.
“I believe we have seen the worst in terms of volatility. I believe we have seen the worst of the volatility. We are glad that the market is now such that buyers and sellers are willing to operate in the market.
“In the last two, three weeks, after a period of volatility, we saw a lot of stability in the market. There is almost no currency movement.
“We feel there are several things happening, okay, one of them is that market confidence has increased again, there is a lot of inflow again because there is very little liquidity at that time, and potential players in the market, both on the buying and selling sides, are more confident in the future .
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“And when I talk about the buy side, keep in mind the fact that in the past what used to happen was people panicking and prioritizing their demand. Now many have calmed down and have no desire to do that because liquidity has returned to the market.
“We are not confident that we have reached where we want to be. Work continues and we will do everything possible to ensure that we continue to manage the macroeconomic fundamentals that influence those markets in such a way that they will continue to improve.
“We are also very passionate about observing how and how those markets operate and ensuring that they provide the best value that can be achieved using certain tools. It is also important to mention that monetary and fiscal work closely together.
“So, I would just give you one picture if I said, you know, monetary does one thing, monetary does another thing, but they work very closely together and I believe that complementarity is what will give us the optimal interest rates for the currency. that money. Naira within a certain period of time,” he said.
Since early June, the naira has been trading in a narrow range of between N1,473 and N1,490 per dollar in the official market.
However, the naira fell to N1,500/$ on Tuesday – from N1,488 traded on June 24.
By: Babajide Okeowo
The post Despite slump to N1,500/$1, Cardoso says naira volatility worst appeared first on Latest Nigerian News | Top News from Ripples Nigeria.
