|Economy|
Higher Food Prices Push Inflation Slightly to 8% in December: The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released her inflation estimates for December 2014 yesterday, 13th December 2015. By NBS' estimation, the Headline Index rose 10bps Y-o-Y to 8.0% in December 2014 from 7.9% in November. Although growth in the Core index moderated to 6.2% in December 2014- a 10bps decline, the faster growth of the Food index which rose 10bps Y-o-Y to 9.3% delivered the marginal increase in the Headline Index. The Food Index contributes over 50.0% to the weighting of the Headline Index, hence, the increase in the Headline Inflation rate despite the subtle moderation in the Core Inflation. Headline Inflation averaged 8.0% for the 12 months of 2014, 50bps lower than the 8.5% average growth in the Headline Index for the 12 months of 2013. Source: Thisday

Crude Oil Prices Near Six-year Low at US$45 Per Barrel: Oil prices on Tuesday dropped to nearly a six-year low with the prices of both Brent and United States crude oil converging briefly at a point as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) insist on their refusal to cut production to boost prices. As OPEC battles not to lose its Asian market share, the glut in the market forced the price of Brent down by $1.56 at $45.87 a barrel after a session low at $45.19, its lowest since April 2009. Similarly, the United States crude oil West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was down to an April 2009 low of $44.20 earlier in the session before pulling back to trade down about 40 cents at $45.67 a barrel. The arbitrage between US crude oil and Brent crude oil futures traded at parity for the first time since October 2014, with both markets at $46 a barrel at one point. Source: Thisday

DMO to Raise US$1.66 Billion in Q1 2015: In a bid to bridge the massive deficit in the 2015 budget, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has released its provisional bond issuance calendar for the first quarter of this year. A review of the provisional bond issuance calendar showed that the DMO plans to raise (gross) between N215 billion ($1.17 billion) and N305 billion ($1.66 billion) from the sale of FGN bonds. The calendar also showed that the debt office will still be selling the existing 10-year and 20-year benchmarks (14.20 percent Mar ‘24s and 12.15 per cent Jul ‘34s) each month. Source: Thisday

Naira Drops Despite CBN Dollar Sales: The Naira eased against the Dollar on Tuesday despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s selling of more Dollars on Monday at its forex auction, due to strong demand for the greenback. The central bank sold $249m at N168 to the Dollar, at its twice-weekly auction on Monday, higher than the $200m it earlier offered. The bank has been selling the dollar at N168 since after it devalued the currency. But the interbank market has traded lower. The Naira closed at N181.20 to the greenback on Monday. On Tuesday, however, the naira closed at 183.70 to the Dollar at the interbank market. Source: Punch