Nigeria's Economy Records First Positive Reading- Exports Jump by Over 50%

Nigeria's trade balance in the fourth quarter of 2016 turned positive as exports rose by more than half, data from the national bureau of statistics on Saturday said. 

This is the first positive reading since the same quarter a year ago, Reuters say.

However, the country's economy shrank 1.5 percent over the course of the full year due to lower oil revenues and a shortage of hard currency. 

Nigeria imports most of what it consumes due to its limited manufacturing ability. The country's fourth-quarter imports rose 46.4 percent from the previous year to 2.31 trillion naira ($7.6 billion). But exports more than compensated for that rise, jumping 53.5 percent in value terms from a year earlier to 2.98 trillion naira, the statistics bureau said.

The balance of trade for the fourth quarter was 671 billion naira. The net trade balance stood at minus 290 billion naira ($953 million) for all of 2016.