LAGOS, Aug 3 – Nigeria expects its economy to grow 2.2 percent this year, the government said in a strategy document seen by Naija247news on Thursday, after the country suffered its first recession in more than two decades in 2016.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The 2018-2020 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Strategy Paper, to form the basis for its 2018 budget, projects spending of 7.94 trillion naira ($21.75 bln) next year, up 6.7 percent from the sum budgeted for 2017. The document was dated July 27.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said it expects Africa’s biggest economy to grow by 0.8 percent this year, with threats to growth remaining elevated.
Fund said Nigeria’s new window for investors to trade the currency, the naira, at market rates has allowed portfolio inflows and helped boost foreign reserves, which has contributed to reducing the premium on the black market rate.
“In the near term, a stronger push for front-loaded fiscal consolidation through a sustainable increase in non-oil revenues would be needed to create space for infrastructure spending, social protection, and private sector credit,” it said.
“This should be simultaneously accompanied by a monetary policy that avoids direct financing of the government and is kept sufficiently tight, a unified and market-based exchange rate, and rapid implementation of structural reforms.”
Pursuing these policies would help reduce vulnerabilities and create an environment for an economy led by the private sector, the IMF said.