Abuja — Foreign exchange offered for sale by CBN under the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) remained at $140.00 million, as in the previous week, while aggregate demand for foreign exchange by authorised dealers increased by 18.8 per cent above the level recorded in the preceding week to US$343.54 million.

Consequently, the actual amount of foreign exchange sold by the Central Bank stood at US$180.70 million as against US$182.11 million in the preceding week.

Making these known through its weekly bulletin on the operations of the foreign exchange market for the week-ended June 27, 2008, the CBN stated that during the week under review, its intervention at the inter-bank segment of the foreign exchange market increased by 42.0 per cent to $390.50 million.

Meanwhile, the bank noted that the average number of participating and successful banks remained at 17 and 14, respectively, the same as in the preceding week.

On the movement in the exchange rate of the naira during the period under review, it said that the average exchange rate of the naira was N117.80 per US dollar compared with N117.81 per US dollar in the previous week.

The weighted average exchange rate appreciated marginally by 0.01 per cent to close at N117.78 per US dollar. At the bureau-de-change segment of the market, it also observed the naira traded at an average exchange rate of N118.92 per US dollar, showing a depreciation of 0.1 per cent below the level in the preceding week. Consequently, the premium between the official and bureau-de-change rates widened from 0.8 per cent in the week-ended June 20, 2008 to 0.9 per cent.