African Journal of Political Science

ISSN 1027-0353

African Journal of Political Science ISSN 3461-2165 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-007, January, 2018. © International Scholars Journals

Full length Research Paper

External reserve holdings in Nigeria: Implications for investment, inflation and exchange rate

W. Ibrahim

Department of Economics, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 15 December, 2017

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of change in external reserve positions of Nigeria on domestic investment, inflation and exchange rates. Using a combination of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Vector Error Correction (VEC) methods, it was observed that change in external reserves in the country only influences Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and exchange rates and no influence of it was found on domestic investment and inflation rates. The results suggest that there is the need for broader reserve management strategies that will aim at maximizing the gains from oil export revenue by utilizing more of these resources to boost domestic investment.

Key words: External reserve, inflation rate, exchange rate, vector error correction.