The Federal Government recorded a fiscal deficit of N405.28bn in August, the Central Bank of Nigeria said in its economic report.
It said the government’s aggregate expenditure was N781.61bn while retained revenue stood at N376.33bn.
The report said independent revenue fell by 52.2 per cent in August which led to a 10.4 per cent decline in government’s retained revenue from N420.2bn in July.
The Federal Government recorded a fiscal deficit of N405.28bn in August, the Central Bank of Nigeria said in its economic report.
It said the government’s aggregate expenditure was N781.61bn while retained revenue stood at N376.33bn.
The report said independent revenue fell by 52.2 per cent in August which led to a 10.4 per cent decline in government’s retained revenue from N420.2bn in July.
Recurrent expenditure accounted for 87.4 per cent of total spending in August, while capital expenditure and transfers constituted 7.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively.”
The bank attributed the low allocation to capital expenditure to the lag in capital releases during the period.
The report added that the significant drop in aggregate expenditure outweighed the impact of low revenue outcome on the fiscal balance in August
It said this led to a 25.2 per cent decline in fiscal deficit, from N541.8bn in July to N405.3bn in August.
On trade performance, the CBN said that Nigeria recorded a higher trade deficit of $820m in August, when compared with $340m in July.
It said, “Aggregate export receipts decreased by 4.7 per cent to $4.24bn in the review period, compared with $4.45bn in the preceding period, owing to lower receipts from crude oil export.
“Merchandise import grew by 5.5 per cent to $5.06bn in August, from $4.80bn in the preceding month, reflecting increased domestic demand for both petroleum and non-oil-related products, occasioned by an uptick in domestic economic activities.”
