Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the nation has recorded a budget deficit of N397.74 billion in May, contrary to provisional monthly budget deficit of N196.40 billion in the 2017 budgetary year.
At N220.33 billion or 48.1 per cent of total revenue for the month, non-oil revenue was below the monthly budget estimate of N445.14 billion by 50.5 per cent.
It was also below the April collection of N225.71 by 2.4 per cent.
CBN, in its latest report, attributed the poor performance relative to the budget to the effect of the slowdown in general economic activities which impacted negatively on most of the components of the non-oil revenue.
The fall relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed, largely to the short fall in both oil and non-oil revenue components Gross oil receipts, at N238.09billion or 51.9 per cent of total revenue, was lower than the monthly budget estimate.
The decline in oil revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributed to the short fallin revenue from crude-oil and gas exports and PPT/Royalties.
Domestic crude oil production was estimated at 1.63 mbd or 50.53 million barrels (mb) in May 2017.
Crude oil export was estimated at 1.18 mbd or 36.58 mb in the review month.
The average spot price of Nigeria’s reference crude oil, the Bonny Light (37° API) fell to $51.20 per barrel in May 2017 from $52.89 per barrel recorded in April 2017, representing a decline of 3.20 per cent.
The estimated total expenditure of the federal government, at N583.32 billion, fell short of the 2017 provisional monthly budget estimate by 9.7 per cent.
It, however, rose above the level in April 2017 by 3.0 per cent. Recurrent and capital expenditure accounted for 61.0 per cent and 34.3 per cent, respectively, while transfers accounted for the balance of 4.7 per cent of the total expenditure.
However, aggregate foreign exchange inflow into the economy amounted to $5.78 billion, representing 5.0 per cent decline below the level in the preceding month, but showed an increase of 30.8 per cent above the level in the corresponding period of 2016 while aggregate foreign exchange outflow from the economy rose by 38.8 per cent at $3.18 billion.