Nigeria's external reserves declined 0.04 percent to $45.09 billion by July 17, from $45.11 billion a month earlier, latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shown on Friday.
The foreign exchange buffer, however, rose marginally by $48 million between July 1 to July 17, according to the regulator's data posted on its website.
The decline in the forex reserves month-on-month may have been accounted for by the frequency of the CBN intervention in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The regulatory bank sells an average of $210 million to importers on the official window weekly to help stabilise the exchange rate on all segment of the forex market.
However. Nigeria's forex reserves are able to support the country's import bills for more than 13 months, higher than five months minimum global recommendations.
Africa's biggest economy has enjoyed relative macroeconomic stability in the past two years due to rising global oil price and improvement in foreign capital inflows, majorly from offshore portfolio investors.
Consequently, inflation rate has gradually slowed to 11.22 percent at the end of June from 11.40 percent in May and 11.37 percent in January.
The naira traded unchanged at 360 to the dollar on the parallel market on Thursday and traded at 306.95 to the dollar on the official window.
The naira is expected to remain relatively stable in the coming days, will be buoyed by a sustained foreign exchange intervention by the central bank and continued foreign portfolio investment flows as the country prepares to raise 145 billion naira in local bond next week.
Analysts are expecting that with the improvement in the macroeconomic environment and softening of inflation figure, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) might be tempted to lower Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) slightly at their meeting next week.
The CBN had come out with some regulatory tools in the last few weeks to influence banks credit growth to the private sector in a bid to boost productivity in the economy.
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