Nairametrics| The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released its 2017 Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Economic Outlook, and as usual, it is generating controversies already. The report, Reuters says, presented a not-so-positive outlook for the region with specific predictions for countries. Here are the key highlights and contentious issues from the outlook
- IMF predicts a slight rebound in economic growth by about 2.6%
- Non-oil producing countries will continue to fare better than oil producing countries with economic growth expected to be in the 5% region, more than double the region’s average
- Economic growth in oil-producing countries is hinged on increased public spending and increased oil production.
- Oil-producing countries continue to suffer slower economic growth due to “insufficient policy adjustment” and “delay in implementing critical adjustment policies”
- Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow at 0.8% in 2017 and 1.9% in 2018
- The IMF urged strong policy decisions from leaders, greater exchange rate flexibility and the elimination of exchange restriction for increased growth to be achieved.
Already, at the presentation, the Director of Policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Moses Tule, had come out to disagree with the IMF’s predictions, claiming that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the Federal Government, if well-implemented will lead to far better figures than what the IMF is projecting.
