The Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane has predicted that the Nigerian currency, naira may fall further against the United States dollar to 520 from the current 490/dollar within the year.
According to a bulletin containing the FDC’s economic outlook for 2017 released on Wednesday, Rewane forecasted that the naira would trade at N350/dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market and depreciate to N520/$ at the parallel market.
He also added that inflation would slow down this year to between 15 per cent and 17 per cent, after spiking towards 20 per cent.
Rewane said, “2016 was a year like no other. Five most unlikely events occurred including the coincidental death of George Michael on Christmas Day and the naira testing N500/dollar in the parallel market. The average Nigerian had nothing to cheer and felt it was a year in which he was economically raped, no thanks to a recession and a flawed forex market.
“2017 is looking slightly better with projections of positive growth of 1.2 per cent. This will happen only upon three conditions: Engagement in the Niger Delta to bring production back up to 2mbpd; reduction in interest rates and an increased supplementary budget; and an overhaul of the forex market to ensure transparency, liquidity and price efficiency.
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