THE nation's domestic debt stock has spiralled to N2.58 trillion at the end of this year's first quarter, a 28.7 per cent rise over the level at the end of December, last year.
The disclosure came from the recently released first quarter report of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which also noted the dwindling foreign exchange inflow and outflow, during the period under review.
The rising debt stock, which was put at 9.6 per cent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was attributed largely to the issuance of additional FGN bonds during the quarter.
Essentially, the output growth in the economy, measured by GDP, according to the CBN report, was estimated at 6.3 per cent in the first quarter under review, compared with 5.8 per cent achieved in the corresponding period of last year.
The growth was said to have been driven mainly by the non-oil sector, particularly agriculture, which constituted 35.8 per cent of the total GDP and contributed 2.2 percentage points to the growth in real GDP in the first quarter.
The report disclosed that foreign exchange inflow and outflow, through CBN in the period under review, was $5.72 billion and $11.26 billion respectively, representing a net outflow of $5.54 billion.
"Relative to the respective levels of $10.78 billion and $18.93 billion in the preceding quarter, inflow and outflow fell by 46.9 and 40.6 per cent respectively," the report added.
The decline in inflow was attributed to the 56.9 per cent fall in oil receipts, while the rise in outfall was due largely to the 39.5 per cent rise in Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) utilisation during the quarter.
"Available data on aggregate foreign exchange flows through the economy indicated that total inflow amounted to $19.12 billion, representing a decline of 19.8 and 34.1 per cent on the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2008 respectively.
"Oil sector receipts which accounted for 22.2 per cent of the total, stood at $4.25 billion, compared with the respective levels of $9.87 billion and $10.69 billion in the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2008.
"Non-oil public sector inflows, which accounted for 7.7 per cent of the total, rose by 62.6 per cent, while autonomous inflow, which accounted for 70.1 per cent, increased by 2.5 per cent," the report stated.
Specifically, the report stated that proceeds from crude oil during the first quarter was an 8.2 per cent higher than the budget estimate, which analysts said, would normally not impair implementation of approved votes by the government.
Also, receipts from non-oil business was N341.46 billion which was 1.6 per cent lower that what was realised in the corresponding period of last year and 37.7 per cent below budget estimate, showing dismal efforts at resource base diversification.
The drop in non-oil receipts relative to the preceding quarter was attributed mainly to the fall in revenue from Customs and Excise, Companies Income Tax and Value-Added Tax (VAT).
According to the CBN report, Federal Government's retained revenue for this year's first quarter was N747.37 billion, while total expenditure was N747.86 billion.
Consequently, the fiscal operations of the government resulted in an estimated overall deficit of N490 million, compared with the budgeted deficit of N140.8 billion.
During this year's first quarter, CBN reported that the states received N352.14 billion, which included the 13 per cent derivation fund and share of VAT, from the federation account. This represents however a decline of 22.8 per cent from their earnings in the preceding quarter and 14.6 per against receipts in the corresponding period of 2008.
On a worrisome note, the CBN report shared that domestic debt stock of the government, at the end if the first quarter, rose by 28.7 per cent to N2.58 trillion over the level in the last quarter of last year.

50112