The World Bank has cut Nigeria’s economic growth forecast for 2016, citing weakness from oil-output disruptions and low prices. The World Bank made this known in its semi-annual Global Economic Prospects report according to Bloomberg.
The report projects that Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 0.8 percent, down from an estimate of 4.6 percent in January. Growth is projected to pick up to 3.5 percent in 2017, it said.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported last week that Nigeria’s 2016 first quarter GDP dropped by 0.3%, the first negative GDP since 1995.
Nigerian economy has been hard hit by a myriad of external and internal issues. The fall in crude oil prices and other commodity prices lead the wave of external issues that has affected the economy. Capital controls due to naira depreciation, pipeline bombings and insecurity, government’s slow response to issuing and implementing policy are among some of the internal issues.
The CBN has already predicted an imminent recession which is two straight quarters of negative GDP, when the Statistics Bureau publishes Q2 results in September. Nigeria currently faces a stagflation, a situation where inflation rate is rising and GDP growth rate is dropping. Inflation rate for the month of May is expected to be released next week.
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