Nigeria’s Naira: Floating Or Sinking?
On Monday afternoon, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ended the
Nigerian Naira’s sixteen-month peg to the U.S. Dollar, sending the Naira
into a free-fall. The currency had been pegged at 197 Naira per Dollar,
but as the chart below shows, it had been trading at over 320 Naira per Dollar for months on the black market (read: free market) and currently
sits at 345 Naira per dollar. At the time of writing, the Naira was
officially trading at 282.50 Naira per dollar.
The official
inflation rate for Nigeria in May was 15.6 percent. However, by using
changes in the black market exchange rate data and applying the
Purchasing Power Parity Theory, I calculate that the annual inflation
rate implied by the free market is actually much higher - currently
sitting at over 56 percent (see the accompanying chart).
A managed, floating exchange-rate regime is ill-suited for a country
with weak institutions and little discipline, like Nigeria. More
troubles lie ahead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-h-hanke/nigerias-floating-read-si_b_10616114.html
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