[size=14pt]Nigeria vehicle imports down 43 pct so far this year[/size]


LAGOS (Reuters) - Imports of new vehicles into Nigeria slumped 43 percent in the first seven months of the year on weak consumer spending, though dealers expect demand for trucks and buses to strengthen, industry sources said on Friday.

Vehicle sales in Africa's most populous nation are a proxy measure for private purchasing power, a leading economic indicator which is not formally available in Nigeria.

Industry sources say Nigerian port figures showed vehicle imports fell to 19,183 units in the seven months to July from 33,597 in the same period of last year.

Dealers are stocking more trucks, vans and earth-moving vehicles to tap into a construction boom as sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy pushes ahead in its drive to provide badly needed infrastructure.

Nigeria's commercial hub, Lagos, is in the process of completing its first toll road, a 50 billion naira expressway which is the country's first public/private infrastructure project, while a clutch of new hotels and apartment blocks have sprung up in recent months.

But the picture is less rosy for private consumers still trying to recover from the economic downturn who are shying away from big ticket purchases, industry sources say.

Dealers expect car imports this year to reach just 35,000 units, shy of the 44,757 achieved last year.

Source . . .

[size=14pt]Nigeria’s economic growth is not real’ [/size]
By Stanley Oronsaye
July 4, 2010 01:08AM
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[img]http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg&STREAMOID=6ojQssS$mRut683Pc8Wl_C6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxR0$ZEQJ662Yk3n6C4lOx4XnW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-[/img]

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) paint the picture of a robust economy that is responding positively to the various rescue measures it has put in place in the last one year. The regulator says inflation is down to 11 per cent from 12.50 per cent between April and May. Credit to private sector increased from N10.04 billion in March to N10.07 billion in April while official lending rates has dropped from 18.38 per cent in January to 18.06 per cent in March, according to the latest CBN figures. This is in addition to pegging the benchmark interest rate at 6.0 per cent in the last four months, a pointer to relative macroeconomic stability.

The naira has remained relatively stable in the last three months, fluctuating between N148.93 and N148.5 to the dollar at the official market. At the interbank, which is the rate at which foreign exchange is traded among banks, the naira firmed up from N151 at which it traded on Monday to N149.50 on Thursday. This was achieved on the back of spirited effort by the Central Bank to defend the naira. Thus, foreign reserves have slipped from $40.5 billion in April to $37.2 billion at the end of June. On the strength of this, the CBN is expected to leave monetary policy instruments unchanged at its next bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled to hold 5 July in Abuja.

Analysts, however, say the figures may not represent the true state of the economy.

Number game


Samuel Nzekwu, former president of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, said “The Central Bank is mostly theorizing with its figures”.

“What are they using to measure? In all of this did they capture the informal sector?”

According to him, the informal sector provides a missing link in the CBN estimates as there are no adequate data covering it. He said even though the economy is going through some rejuvenation, the gains there would be of more benefit if government achieved the target to improve power supply, security and infrastructure.

“For an economy to be said to expand, you must encourage savings. Now, CBN policies has brought savings rate down. That means people will not save as much as they would want to. And if banks are not lending, it means economy is not growing.

A financial analyst and investment banker, who craved anonymity, said the headline numbers may be good but do not translate to meaningful impact on the citizens due to disconnections in the system. “At the microeconomic level, Nigerians do not feel the impact of this GDP growth that the CBN is presenting. This is due to poor infrastructure, weak consumer spending, and corruption, which does not allow government expenditure to directly affect the people.”

He said the trend may not be too different this year unless government is able to translate the 6.0 per cent GDP growth target, stable naira and lower inflation to have direct impact on Nigerians.

Slow recovery

Lamido Sanusi, the CBN governor, told Bloomberg last week that bank lending has been slow to recover after last year’s bailout.

“It will take a little while. The general macroeconomic environment has to improve and a lot of that is about soft issues. It’s about confidence; it’s about belief; it’s about faith.”

Mr. Sanusi said the weakness in the Nigerian economy can be addressed with the right policies. “We need to have structural transformation. We have GDP growth that’s driven by domestic demand. It’s just a question of improving productivity in our culture, improving critical infrastructure and creating a better business environment.”

However, some bank shareholders have berated the action of the Central Bank for the unintended consequences it has had on the economy. At the annual general meeting of Ecobank Nigeria Plc held in Lagos last week, they said the sector reforms were closing up the operating space for the banks.

“Any reform that continues to devalue investment, does not encourage investment and destroys entrepreneurship must be condemned. After one year of rampaging by the regulators, we shareholders need to ask ourselves where we are today,” said Sunny Nwosu, coordinator of one of the shareholders group.

Economic stimulus

To correct the situation, there have been calls for deliberate injection of funds into the economy in order to stimulate demand and encourage productivity.

Bright Okogwu, the director general of the budget office, said the 2010 budget was actually designed as a stimulus tool even though current realities have necessitated its restructuring. Mr. Okogwu said a budget deficit of 4.75 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product, even though it is above the threshold of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, is still in line with global standard.

“To avoid adverse impact on macro economy, deficit needs to be managed carefully. There is need for increased spending designed to target infrastructure,” he said.

Emeka Okafor, a stock market analyst, said the stock market is still in the woods as the negative effects of the banking sector reforms are still being felt.

“Investors are now wary, particularly of banks stocks. People are being careful, preferring to have a clearer picture of the situation in the banks before staking their funds.”

He insisted that the capital market remains one of the reliable outlets for investment in an economy like Nigeria.


Monitoring economy


But the CBN prefers a more holistic approach to reviving the economy. Sanusi said the recovery of the capital market does not necessarily translate to economic recovery as the reforms initiated in other sectors of the economy need to be carried through to complement financial sector reforms.

“The committee would continue to monitor the recovery of the capital market to ensure that a bubble is not once again being formed.”


SOurce . . .

[size=14pt]CBN economy is Growing[/size]
By Stanley Oronsaye
August 11, 2010 [/b]07:23PM
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) insists that despite claims to the contrary, [b]the Nigerian economy is actually growing in real terms.

Lamido Sanusi, the CBN Governor, said in Benin, Edo State, last week that official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics which tally with the Central Bank data suggests that the Nigerian economy is showing signs of recovery. Mr Sanusi added that inflation rate which stood at 12.5 per cent in April dropped to 10.3 per cent in June.

[size=14pt]Cheering statistics[/size]

“When I became governor in June last year, the rate of inflation was 15 per cent. End of last June it was down to 10.3 per cent. When I became governor, the OBB (open buy back) rate was eight per cent while the overnight rate was 22 per cent. Now there is a convergence between the OBB and overnight rate and that has been so for almost a year now,” he said. The OBB is the rate at which firms trade treasury bills while the overnight rate is the cost of unsecured funds.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the market value of all final goods and services officially made within the borders of a country in a year and is a measure of standard of living, is projected to grow by 7.53 per cent, with the highest growth in the fourth quarter of 2010. The governor said the current value of the naira was an indication of economic stability. “When I became governor, the official rate for the naira was N145 while black market was around N189/N192. We have closed the differential to less than two per cent and it has been like that for over a year. The stock market had lost over 70 per cent before I came in as governor. Between January and June it has regained almost 30 per cent,” he said.

[size=14pt]Construction sector contributes 3% to GDP, says Aganga[/size]
FRIDAY, 13 AUGUST 2010 01:14 ANONYMOUS

Olusegun Aganga, minister of finance, says the construction industry contributes about 3 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Aganga, who gave the information in Abuja on Thursday at the 2nd Growth and Employment Roundtable on the construction sector, said there was a need to improve on the sector’s contribution to the GDP.

“Our major focus is to enhance economic growth. Building construction contributes 3 percent to the economy, there is need to improve on it. “Our aim is also to grow the economy’s double digit and witness average growth rate over the next 10 years,’’ he said.

Aganga said agriculture contributed the highest share to the GDP with 43 percent contribution. He said the telecommunications sector had overtaken the manufacturing sector in terms of contribution to the GDP and called for an improvement of the situation toward the realisation of the goal of Nigeria as one of the most industrialised nations in 2020.

The minister said the aim of the meeting was to get stakeholders’ contributions toward facilitating the sector’s growth to enable it to contribute effectively to the economy. He said the areas of focus for economic management included capital, inclusive growth and productivity and enabled business climate toward job creation and economic growth.

Aganga described the nation’s GDP growth of 7.68 percent as robust, adding that the country’s revenue earnings grew by 8 percent in June.

lol kobojunkie is mad she's poor.

[size=14pt]Nigeria’s economy growing, says minister[/size]

August 9, 2010 02:02AM
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The Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, has said that Nigeria has recorded a 7.68 per cent Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) rate between January and June this year.

Mr. Aganga, who was speaking at an interactive session with the members of the organised private sector in Lagos over the weekend, said that this was against the 7.2 per cent GDP recorded in 2009.

He said that the statistic, compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics, was real although some Nigerians might not believe it.

The minister said that it was regrettable that the manufacturing sector contributed less than five per cent to the GDP recorded in the first half of this year.

Mr. Aganga said that the ICT sector, which is in its infancy in Nigeria, contributed more to the GDP than the manufacturing sector.

He said that the Federal Government attached importance to the manufacturing sector because of its ability to create jobs and improve the productive base of the economy.

“You (the manufacturing sector) are a very important sector, but we want you to move from being important to being significant,” he said.

Mr. Aganga said that the manufacturing sector could grow by double digit and that Nigeria was on the threshold of joining Brazil, Russia, India, and China as foremost emerging economies.

“This is what we want, and we shall rely on you to achieve it,” he said.

The minister said that government’s approach to economic development was that of constant engagement with the real sector operators.

“We want to keep constant touch with you as we make and review policies so as to achieve desired results.

“We have created avenues for this constant dialogue and my doors are open to welcome ideas on how to get this economy where we want it,” he said.

According to the minister, [size=14pt]“the revenue inflow into the country improved by 48 per cent in the first half of the year”.[/size]

exactly, with Zhope and Innoson producing domestic vehicles, and in house trade of used vehicles of course imports will go down.

Ikengawo:

lol kobojunkie is mad she's poor.

How exactly did you, from those newspaper articles  which by the way I did not write but simply opened a thread on Nairaland with, come up with my being poor? If you are looking for someone to curse, I sent it back to you. I have never complained of being poor to you so if you feel it is your lot, you can keep it in your household. Imagine!

Ikengawo:

exactly, with Zhope and Innoson producing domestic vehicles, and in house trade of used vehicles of course imports will go down.

Zhope and Innoson reasons for why vehicle imports dropped by almost 50% this year? Did you even bother doing your research to at least find out some things about those companies before you excuse this in the way you just did? How big is there market so far that they would cause such a dive in imports in just one year? The Article even EXPLAINS to you what the issue is yet you come up with Zhope and Innoson as reason in your warped logic there? COme on dude . . . I am sure you can do better than that. A question was not asked. You were told of what actually happened.