The International Monetary Fund reduced its prediction for Nigeria’s economic growth in 2024 to 3.1% Tuesday, citing the country’s weaker-than-expected Q1’24 growth.>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
The revised estimate was included in the IMF’s July 2024 World Economic Outlook, which was made public yesterday.
The reduction in prediction is equivalent to 0.2 percentage points less than the previous estimate of 3.3%.
The country’s lower-than-expected Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and growth in Q1’23 led to the downgrading.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s GDP growth decreased quarter over quarter (QoQ) from 3.46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 (Q3’23) to 2.98 percent in Q1’24.
The IMF however retained its 3.0 per cent forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth in 2025.
As a result of the lower forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth, the IMF also downgraded its forecast for Sub-Saharan economic growth in 2024 to 3.7 per cent from the April WEO forecast of 3.8 per cent. It however raised its economic growth forecast for the region in 2025 to 4.1 per cent from 4.0.
“The forecast for growth in sub-Saharan Africa is revised downward, mainly as a result of a 0.2 percentage point downward revision to the growth outlook in Nigeria amid weaker than expected activity in the first quarter of this year,” the IMF said.
For the global economy, the IMF retained its growth forecasts of 3.2 per cent in 2024 and 3.3 per cent in 2025.
The IMF said: “The Global Economy in a Sticky Spot Global growth is projected to be in line with the April 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast, at 3.2 per cent in 2024 and 3.3 per cent in 2025.
“However, varied momentum in activity at the turn of the year has somewhat narrowed the output divergence across economies as cyclical factors wane and activity becomes better aligned with its potential.
“Services price inflation is holding up progress on disinflation, which is complicating monetary policy normalization. Upside risks to inflation have thus increased, raising the prospect of higher-for-even-longer interest rates, in the context of escalating trade tensions and increased policy uncertainty.
“To manage these risks and preserve growth, the policy mix should be sequenced carefully to achieve price stability and replenish diminished buffers.”>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE
