The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced Nigeria’s growth prospects over low crude oil production and severe flooding among other challenges currently bedevilling the country’s economy. The fund, in its recently published World Economic Outlook (WEO), noted that “Nigeria’s growth prospects for 2024 dropped to 2.9% from 3.3%” published in its last report.
It blamed the downgrade, particularly on the effects of recent inflation, flooding and oil production setbacks. This is as it projected global economic growth in 2025 to remain unchanged at 3.2%. The projection for the global economy represents a decline of 0.1% from the fund’s earlier projection in July 2024. For Nigeria, the IMF’s recent GDP growth projection for 2025 represents a 0.2% increase from its earlier projection in July this year.
The GDP growth in 2024 will stay at 2.9% – a downgrade compared to its projection in July of this year, according to the fund. On inflation, it projected Nigeria’s inflation to steady at 25% in 2025 and 14% by 2029. “Nigeria’s economy in the first and second quarter of the year grew by 2.98% and 3.19% respectively amid a surge in inflation and further depreciation of the naira. “The GDP growth rate in the first two quarters of 2024 surpassed the figure for 2023, representing resilience despite severe macroeconomic shocks with a spike in petrol prices and a 28-year high inflation rate.
“Nigeria’s inflation rate only began to slow down in July 2024 after 19 months of consistent increase dating back to January 2023.
