bugidon:
IMF don chop FG dollars come dey talk rubbish

Good economy wey no dey show for citizens body, that one na economy?

bugidon:
IMF don chop FG dollars come dey talk rubbish

Good economy wey no dey show for citizens body, that one na economy?

989900:
OK. Hopefully, tomorrow you guys won't come up with another story. The economy is sure on the right track, but the IMF is too fickle and too political and self-interest motivated.

OTOH, the FG should Increase salaries, go ahead with infrastructural development and work on a stronger Naira for the populace to live a better life.

bugidon:
IMF don chop FG dollars come dey talk rubbish

Good economy wey no dey show for citizens body, that one na economy?

jidxin:
Really How much did APC give you

datola:
That's good and kudo's to FG's effort at diversifying the economy.

I am still imagining what effect the planned exit of ExxonMobil will have on the economy. Hoping it will mean opportunity for indigineous firms.

Oddsman:
Dey don't want to hear this. They just dont want to hear our nation is progressing. Even if you despise your leaders, wish your country well at least.

TroubleMaker47:

Bribed? Like seriously?
All because of ur hate for Buhari!!!
But if they had predicted doom for Nigeria's economy, that would hv given u orgasm shey?
How ur ilks continually wishes bad for this nation and her citizens is just sickening!

chyker3:
IMF trying to make naira depreciate more.

gcof:
hahahah isn’t it better to see than to hear??

ojikeebere12:

It said the headline inflation fell to 11.4 per cent at end of 2018, reflecting declining food price inflation and weak consumer demand.

The Fund also reflects a relatively stable exchange rate and tight monetary policy during most of 2018, but remains outside of the central bank’s target range of 6-9 per cent.

IMF also noted that record holdings of mostly short-term local debt and equity and a current account surplus lifted gross international reserves to a peak in April 2018.

The Fund pointed out that persisting structural and policy challenges continue to constrain growth to levels below those needed to reduce vulnerabilities, lessen poverty and improve weak human development outcomes, such as in health and education.

It said: “A large infrastructure gap, low revenue mobilisation, governance and institutional weaknesses, continued foreign exchange restrictions, and banking sector vulnerabilities are dampening long-term foreign and domestic investment and keeping the economy reliant on volatile oil prices and production.

“Under the current policies, the outlook remains therefore muted. Over the medium term, absent strong reforms, growth would hover around 2½ per cent, implying no per capita growth as the economy faces limited increases in oil production and insufficient adjustment four years after the oil price shock.

“Monetary policy focussed on exchange rate stability would help contain inflation, but worsen competitiveness if greater flexibility is not accommodated when needed.

“High financing costs, on the back of little fiscal adjustment, would continue to constrain private sector credit, and the interest-to-revenue ratio would remain high.

“Risks are moderately tilted downwards. On the upside, oil prices could rise, prompted by global political disruptions or supply bottlenecks.

“Bold reform efforts, following the election cycle, could boost confidence and investments, especially given relatively conservative baseline projections.”

Also, in the statement, the Executive Directors of the Fund welcomed Nigeria’s ongoing economic recovery, accompanied by reduced inflation and strengthened reserve buffers.

They, however, noted that the medium-term outlook remains muted, with risks tilted to the downside.

“In addition, long standing structural and policy challenges need to be tackled more decisively to reduce vulnerabilities, raise per capita growth, and bring down poverty,’’ the directors said.

The International Monetary Fund said Nigeria’s economy was growing too slowly to reduce poverty or joblessness and urged the government to boost revenue and scrap its system of multiple exchange rates.

“Growth is not enough,” Amine Mati, the IMF’s mission chief for Nigeria, said in an interview in Lagos on Wednesday as the Washington-based lender released its latest Article IV report for Africa’s biggest oil producer. “Our number-one recommendation is to get the revenue ratio up.”

The economy is recovering from the 2014 crash in crude prices and the IMF forecasts that growth will accelerate to 2.1 percent this year from 1.9 percent in 2018. That would still leave it as one of Africa’s least buoyant economies and will be below the rate of population growth, which is almost 3 percent. The jobless rate was 23 percent in September.

Part of the problem is the government’s small tax base, which hinders its ability to bolster demand through spending. Its ratio of revenue to gross domestic product is one of lowest in the world and will fall to 7 percent in 2019 from 8 percent last year, the IMF said.

Increasing value-added tax from the current 5 percent could be a first step for the government, according to Mati.

Nigeria should “urgently” implement structural reforms to diversify the economy from oil, the IMF said. As well as boosting revenue, these include easing restrictions on businesses buying foreign exchange, increasing fuel and electricity prices and making state-owned companies more efficient, the IMF said.

“Under current policies, the outlook remains muted,” the lender said in the report. “Over the medium term, absent strong reforms, growth would hover around 2.5 percent, implying no per-capita growth as the economy faces limited increases in oil production and insufficient adjustment four years after the oil-price shock.”

Nigeria caps gasoline at 145 naira per liter ($0.40, or $1.51 a gallon), among the 10 cheapest levels worldwide, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com. Low power tariffs have long hindered distribution companies and cause regular blackouts.

Raising gasoline prices may initially increase poverty levels, but that could be more than offset by using the money saved on social programs, Mati said. Nigeria spent 623 billion naira ($1.7 billion) keeping prices down last year, the IMF estimates.

President Muhammadu Buhari opposes higher fuel prices or a devaluing the naira’s official exchange rate of 306 per dollar, which is almost 20 percent stronger than the market-determined price of 360.

While Nigeria has merged most of its various exchange rates in the past two years, the continued existence of at least three rates and curbs on using hard currency to purchase imports are deterring foreign direct investment, Mati said. Most recent capital inflows came from fixed-income traders buying short-term debt and not investors taking a long-term view, he said.

The central bank said last week that there have been about $6 billion of inflows since the February election, mostly into money markets. Rates on naira bonds average 14.4 percent, the fourth-highest among large emerging markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The IMF also said the central bank should stop its development-finance operations, which include lending to farmers and manufacturers at subsidized interest rates, and focus more on price stability and banking supervision.

Stalwert:
[s] we won't accept it, PMB has bribed IMF. Our blodas went to rob in Dubai because of harsh economy... BitterPOB can never have joy in anyway[/s].

sonature1:


The health of an economy is similar to that of a human being - it keeps changing.
Someone who slept healthy the previous can still wake up in an infirmary.
What Buhari and his team need to do is to assemble good economic management team to sustain the gains and improve on it.
If they don't do that, don't blame the IMF if you read a different story from them soon.
Congratulations to Nigeria.
I sincerely hope that the citizens would start feeling the positive impact in no time.

omohayek:
The fact that so many ignoramuses are hailing this highly misleading headline as indicative of what the IMF said, only goes to show that most Nairalanders don't bother to actually read articles before commenting on them. How does any of the following suggest that the IMF thinks Nigeria is "on the right track"?

Here is the IMF saying that per-capita GDP will remain stagnant unless radical reforms Buhari will never agree to are undertaken, and yet through the combination of incompetent Nigerian "journalism" and commenters too lazy to read, this is magically transformed into praise for Buhari's policies!

grandstar:
The Economist knows how to tell one to go to blazes and you'll be looking forward to it.

The score the IMF has given the government is an E rather an F.

What does growth rates if 2.5% mean guys? The country needs to grow by 7% to create enough jobs for those entering the labour annually. Anything, less means the unemployment rate is rising.

Also, the country's population is growing at 2.5% annually. When you deduct the population growth from the economic growth, you get zero. That means per capita income remains the same

From 1999-2013, the economy grew at the average rate of 6% annually and GDP doubled

This is 2.5% growth rate is almost as bad as the Abacha years. The economic growth rates that made India ery poor was the 3.5% annual growth rates from 1947-1990. Yet for the next 4years. Nigeria's will be 2.5%. Is that good or bad or downright frightening?