Nigeria: Officially in Recession

editorial

Minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun confirmed last week what bankers and economists have been hinting at since early this year, that the Nigerian economy is in recession after three straight quarters of negative growth. Her remarks came a day after Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele told a closed door session of the Senate that foreign currency inflow dropped from $3.4 billion per month to $400 million. This has led to the collapse of the value of the Naira against the dollar, which was put at about N375/$1 on the parallel market as at last weekend and above N300 to the dollar for the first time ever on the official inter-bank market.

On its part, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted gloom as it stated that the country's GDP contracted by 0.36 per cent, while the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) emerged with a report that the country's inflation rate was as high as 16.5%, the highest in over a decade. Mrs. Adeosun however qualified her gloomy confirmation with cheering news. She said, "Things are tough but we are not ignorant. I want to assure Nigerians the economy is in good hands and we are absolutely doing our best. We want to assure Nigeria we are on the right path. We are on the right track."

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