Naira depreciates further to 385/dollar

The Naira, on Wednesday, depreciated further to N385 per dollar in the parallel market as demand for foreign exchange intensified.

This implies the naira has depreciated by N60 against the dollar this week in the parallel market, when compared with the closing exchange rate of N325 per dollar last Friday.

The currency, however, remained stable at the official interbank foreign exchange market as the interbank rate closed N199.34, yesterday.

Thus, the gap between the interbank and parallel market rates widened to N185.66 per dollar from N127.53 last Friday.

Investigation also reveals that the naira depreciated against the British pounds to N505 per pounds in the parallel market, yesterday, implying N65 depreciation when compared with the closing rate of N440 last Friday.

The sharp depreciation of the naira in the parallel market this week is driven by increasing demand by importers sourcing dollars to pay for imports.