FG not in agreement with IMF on 2.7% growth projection, says 2021 to close on 3.5% trajectory

The federal government of Nigeria has established that it is not in consensus with the International Monetary Fund’s economic growth projection of 2.7% for Nigeria, for the year 2021.

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, made this known during the Nigerian Development Update Report launch for November 2021, tagged, “Time for Business as Usual”.

The IMF had recently reviewed Nigeria’s outlook projection to a new 2.7% and 2.8% for 2021 and 2022 respectively, but the minister says Nigeria in the last three quarters of this year has hit a 3.3% growth and will improve to reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

Commenting on IMF’s presentation, Ahmed said, “the presentation is based on the fact that the IMF have access but I do want to say much about that the projected growth of 2.7% for 2021 that the world bank has done. On a very conservative side, the three quarter 2021 today has witnessed about 3.3% and our projection is that we will be closing at 3.5% at the least for 2021, so we disagree on that term.”

Also speaking on Nigeria putting a stop to fuel subsidy next year, she explained that the president had stipulated one year for the committee on the PIA to see to the execution of the project before the end of June. She however, added that if this is achieved, it will be an avenue for the country to save additional costs.