THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has retained its growth forecast of 3.2 percent for Nigeria’s economy in 2023.
The IMF, in its World Economic Outlook for April 2023 titled ‘A Rocky Recovery’, also forecast a three percent growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2024.
Other countries highlighted in its 2023 projections were USA (1.6%), Germany (-0.1%), France (0.7%), Italy (0.7%), Spain (1.5%). Japan (1.3%), UK (-0.3%), and Canada (1.5%).
Others are China (5.2%), India (5.9%), Russia (0.7%), Brazil (0.9%), Mexico (1.8%), Saudi Arabia (3.1%), and South Africa (0.1%).
The projection by the Washington DC-based global lender comes days after the World Bank revealed that the naira recorded a 10.2 percent depreciation in 2022, prompted by rising food and fuel prices globally, among other stimulants.
In its Africa Pulse report published last week, the World Bank stated that the depreciation of the exchange rate was also a major contributor to inflationary pressures in the Sub-Saharan region.
“In Nigeria, recently released activity data show mixed results. On the one hand, real GDP growth was higher than expected in the fourth quarter of 2022. It picked up to 3.5 percent y/y, from 2.3 percent in the third quarter. Both oil and non-oil sector activity improved by late 2022,” it said.
“After a 22.7 percent y/y contraction in the third quarter of 2022, oil GDP fell by 13.4 percent y/y in the fourth quarter as security services were making headway against oil theft.”
In January, Head of IMF Kristalina Georgieva ushered the comity of nations into 2023 with a warning that the world’s economy was in for a tougher year as it projected one-third of the globe sliding into recession.
The year 2022 had seen various countries suffering the ripple effects of the ongoing Russia- Ukraine conflict, the resurgence of the COVID-19 virus in China as well as stifling inflation indices not just on the African continent but amongst some of the biggest economies.
Georgieva, explaining the IMF’s October global economic growth outlook for 2023, insisted that the best of economies might likely not be spared from the far-reaching effects of the recession.
“We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession, she said on the CBS news programme Face the Nation.
“Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like a recession for hundreds of millions of people.”