About Nigeria

Recent Macroeconomic and Financial Developments

Nigeria’s economic recession of 2020 reversed previous three years of recovery, this was occasioned by the fall in crude oil prices on account of falling global demand and containment measures against the spread of COVID–19. The containment measures majorly affected aviation, tourism, hospitality, restaurants, manufacturing, and trade. Contraction in these sectors offset demand-driven expansion in financial and information and communications technology sectors. Overall real GDP is estimated to have shrunk by 3% in 2020, although mitigating measures in the Economic Sustainability Programme (ESP) prevented the decline from being much worse. Inflation rose to 12.8% in 2020 from 11.4% in 2019, fueled by higher food prices due to constraints on domestic supplies and the pass-through effects of an exchange rate premium that widened to about 24%. 
The removal of fuel subsidies and an increase in electricity tariffs added further to inflationary pressures. The Central Bank of Nigeria cut the policy rate by 100 basis points to 11.5% to shore up a flagging economy. The fiscal deficit, financed mostly by domestic and foreign borrowing, widened to 5.2% in 2020 from 4.3% in 2019, reflecting pandemic-related spending pressures and revenue shortfalls. Total public debt stood at $85.9 billion (25% of GDP) on 30 June 2020, 2.4% higher than a year earlier. Domestic debt represented 63% of total debt, and external debt, 37%. High debt service payments, estimated at more than half of federally collected revenues, is seen as posing a major fiscal risk to Nigeria. The current account position was expected to remain in deficit at 3.7% of GDP, weighed down by the fall in oil receipts and weak external financial flows.

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