The volume of foreign exchange offered for sale under the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) last week stood at $160.00 million as against $140.00 million in the previous week. Even as aggregate demand for foreign exchange by authorized dealers decreased by 62.1 per cent to $196.75 million.

Consequently, the amount of foreign exchange sold by the Central Bank decreased by 70.6 per cent to $113.00 million from $384.00 million in the previous week. The CBN intervened at the inter-bank segment of the foreign exchange market through the sales of $395.00 million compared with $200.00 million in the week-ended August 1,2008.

The average number of participating banks dropped to 14 as against 16 in the previous week. The average number of successful banks also decreased from 16 to 13 during the period under review.
Consequently, the" naira exchange rate firmed up slightly as it closed at N117.75 per US dollar, as against N117.76 per US dollar in the preceding week, while the weighted average exchange rate remained at N117.75 per US dollar.

the Bureau-De-Change (BDC) segment of the market, the average exchange rate of the naira remained at N119.00 per US dollar, an indication that the premium between the official and BDC rates widened from 1.0 per cent in the week-ended August 1, 2008 to 1.1 per cent last week.