Empirical analysis of international trade and economic growth in Nigeria

This paper empirically examined the impact of International trade on Economic Growth in Nigeria from 1980 to 2015. Nigeria is still experiencing macroeconomic instability and the benefits of International trade are not yet felt. The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of International Trade on Economic Growth using Foreign Direct Investment, Balance of Payments, Exchange rate, Trade Openness and Interest rate as International Trade Variables, while Gross Domestic product served as Economic Growth Variable. Cointegration and Error Correction Technique was employed to establish the long term relationship among the variables. The Findings showed that BOP and exchange rate are not significant, Interest rate showed a direct relationship with GDP while Degree of openness appears to be positively related to GDP. FDI has an inverse relationship with GDP. The study concludes that International Trade has not contributed maximally to economic growth in Nigeria and recommends amongst others that Government should promote local industries and diversify the export base of the nation.