Evaluation of Trend of Foreign Exchange Reserve and Shipping Industry Trade Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on evaluation of the trend of Foreign Exchange Reserve (FX) and performance of shipping industry trade through examining the export and import trades within the periods 2011 to 2022. The objectives were to determine the correlation between trend values of FX with export and import shipping trades in Nigeria. Provisional data on Foreign Exchange Reserve, export and import trades from World Bank, CBN and Trend Economy were analyzed using spearman’s rank correlation coefficient analysis and it was observed that Foreign Exchange positively influences export and import shipping trades, however, the study infers that the impacts were not significant at 0.05 (2-tailed) Significance level. It concludes that the positive correlations between the data variables informs that decrease in FX influences decrease in export and import trade which also retar economic growth, development and reduced people’s standards of living in Nigeria. However, the reserve becomes the case. The study recommends immediate policy adjustment to hold and maintain strong Foreign Exchange which could boost country’s reserve for better performance of the shipping industry and other sectors of the economy.