SAN FRANCISCO, July 11, (THEWILL) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the Nigerian economy “will probably” shrink in 2016, performing below the IMF forecast for the country.
This was revealed in Abuja, on Monday, by Gene Leon, IMF resident representative in Nigeria citing energy shortages and delayed budget.
THEWILL recalls that IMF had initially cut its 2016 growth forecast for Nigeria to 2.3 percent in its April Regional Economic Outlook from 3.2 percent projected in February.
However, Leon said Nigeria will experience some growth in the second half of the year which would not be enough to upturn initial shrinkage of 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2016,
He added that the inflation, which is currently at 15.6 percent, may surge a little more in the months ahead but would not go beyond 20 percent before the end of 2016.
“I think there is a high likelihood that the year 2016 as a whole will be a contractionary year,” Bloomberg quoted Leon as saying.
“While the economy should look better in second half of the year, growth will probably not be sufficiently fast, sufficiently rapid to be able to negate the outcome of the first and second quarters.
“Most people would agree that if you should fix one thing in this country, it should be power.
There is a need to start changing the power equation from 2016, from today, not tomorrow or later.”
Story by David Oputah
