The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to maintain its current monetary policy rates to control inflation.
At the backdrop of the in-coming new regime in Nigeria, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has indicated that the country’s economic growth will see a further slow down to 3.0 percent, one year down the road, in 2024 while maintaining its projection of 3.2 percent growth in 2023, which also indicated slower growth rate against its 2022 figure of 3.3 percent.
A new leadership at the Federal Government is expected to
kick off next month following the 2023 general election that was declared won
by Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The IMF’s position also placed Nigeria’s economic growth
rate below Sub-saharan Africa’s average of 4.2 percent for 2024 and 3.6 percent
for 2023.
According to the IMF Nigeria’s slow down was contrary to
stronger growth prospects for emerging markets and developing economies during
the periods.
The Fund’s forecasts also indicated that Nigeria would be
performing below low-income developing countries, where GDP is expected to grow
by 5.1 percent, on average.
Meanwhile, the IMF also indicated that the global economic
growth rate would be challenged in the short to medium term due to crises
associated with the global financial sector distress and the ongoing
Ukrain-Russia war.
These were some of the highlights of its World Economic
Outlook, WEO, report titled, ‘‘Feeble and Uneven Growth’’, released in
Washington DC during the on-going Spring Meetings of the World Bank/ IMF.
The report stated: ‘‘The baseline forecast is for global
output growth, estimated at 3.4 percent in 2022, to fall to 2.8 percent in
2023, 0.1 percentage point lower than predicted in the January 2023 WEO Update,
before rising to 3.0 percent in 2024.
‘‘This forecast for the coming years is well below what was
expected before the onset of the adverse shocks since early 2022.
‘‘Compared with the January 2022 WEO Update forecast, global
growth in 2023 is 1.0 percentage point lower, and this growth gap is expected
to close only gradually in the coming two years.
‘‘The baseline prognosis is also weak by historical
standards. During the two pre-pandemic decades (2000–09 and 2010–19), world
growth averaged 3.9 and 3.7 percent a year, respectively.
‘‘For emerging market and developing economies, economic
prospects are on average stronger than for advanced economies, but these
prospects vary more widely across regions. On average, growth is expected to be
3.9 percent in 2023 and to rise to 4.2 percent in 2024. ‘‘In low-income
developing countries, GDP is expected to grow by 5.1 percent, on average, over
2023–24, but projected per capita income growth averages only 2.8 percent
during 2023–24, below the average for middle-income economies (3.2 percent) and
so below the path needed for standards of living to converge with those in
middle-income economies’’.