Better days are ahead for the Nigerian economy. After experiencing five consecutive quarters of negative growth, the country exited recession by recording a growth of 0.55 per cent in the second quarter of 2017.
That figure will be surpassed in 2018 when the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has projected that the Nigerian economy will expand by 1.9 per cent. However, it said the growth would remain subdued due to population growth, cautioning that the country’s projected growth was still lower than its population growth rate of 2.7 per cent.
Oya Calesun, Division Chief, Research Department, IMF, gave the forecast while briefing the media on the World Economic Outlook, WEO, released at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. recently.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the IMF also forecast that the Nigerian economy would grow faster than South Africa’s in 2017, as against its projection in July that South Africa’s economy would grow by 1 per cent in 2017, while Nigeria will experience a 0.8 per cent economic expansion.
It said rising political uncertainty has reduced consumer and business confidence in South Africa.
According to the IMF, Nigeria’s growth this year was projected at 0.8 per cent owing to recovering oil production as well as improved output in the agricultural sector.
The growth experienced by Nigeria, according to the IMF, was partly influenced by growth in the oil sector and agriculture. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, through its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, ABP, has released N43.92 billion to 13 participating institutions as at October 1, with 200,000 smallholder farmers from 29 states of the federation benefitting from the programme.
The IMF upgraded global growth projections to 3.6 per cent for this year and 3.7 per cent for next year, in both cases 0.1 percentage point above its previous forecasts, but well above the 2016 global growth rate of 3.2 per cent, the lowest since the global financial crisis.