Emir Sanusi said this in an interview with Daily Trust on his recent visit to Washington DC, fiscal and monetary policy.
He said with the purchasing power parity, nominal exchange rate and
the current rate of inflation, the value of naira at 300 is still
slightly undervalued. His words: “While I think the naira is undervalued, certainly if you
look at the purchasing power parity, when you look at the nominal
exchange rates, when you look at the rate of inflation, it stands to
agree that even at 300 the naira will be slightly undervalued” “Fundamentally, I think the exchange rate is where it’s
supposed to be. What is obviously the problem, is not the fundamentals,
it is the managing of the regime, so that people will have the
confidence that we are indeed having a flexible exchange regime and also
that we are closing the gap between the official and the parallel
market rates, and that could only happen when we have liquidity within
that segment. “The Central Bank decided not to sell forex to BDCs but there is no
liquidity. What you said is for N470-490 to the dollar might be a very
small volume in transactions but it does have the impact of creating the
impression that it creates a huge gap. So if we could just provide
liquidity to that segment and close that gap it will help a lot. “But in terms of where the naira is today, there is no need for any
further devaluation as far as the fundamentals are concerned but we have
to take steps to address confidence”, the Emir said.
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