EXTERNAL RESERVE POSITION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH:EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

This study has examined the impact of external reserve on economic growth between 1986 and 2016 by relying on secondary sources of data.Analysis of the data was done using inferential statistics i.e Ordinary Least Square(OLS) regression.The result of the analysis revealed that each. of the external reserve proxies is a good predictor of economic growth collectively rather than individually because the R2 was as high as 92% while each of them was also positively related to economic growth with the exception of export.Hence,it wasc oncluded that external reserve has significant positive impact on economic growth.Consequently,it was recommended that Since external reserve has positive relationship with economic growth,government should continue to ensure accretion in the level of external reserve by engaging in more of export than import activities while exchange rate at all time should be under constant watch of the monetary authority to ensure that it is optimal rather than antiproductive with inflationary consequence to the Nation’s economic activities.

KeyWords:ExternalReserve,EconomicGrowth,InferentialStatistics,Ordinary least square