Nigeria, June 18 -- The Nigerian naira was also historic in keeping its parallel market robust above the N1600 per dollar barrier, reflecting increased investor confidence in the domestic currency.

This is undertaken as the United States dollar already is bearish offshore, hedged by Middle Eastern geopolitical risk and expectations of an imminent Federal Reserve rate hike.

By mid-week, Lagos naira street vendors were selling the naira at N1585-N1590 per dollar, down from earlier levels of around N1600 and higher. The experts attribute this to improved macroeconomic fundamentals in easing Nigeria's headline inflation rate and the tighter monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The National Bureau of Statistics states that ...