The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has marginally revised its 2019 growth rate projections for Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The revision was made yesterday, April 9, 2019, from the initial forecast of 2% in January to 2.1% for the year 2019, stating that some factors are responsible for the reversal.
Reasons for the reversal by the International Monetary Fund
The international financial institution said that the decline in industrial production and the trade dispute between China and the United States of America, the world’s two largest economies, will take a toll on the growth of Africa’s economies.
Nigeria’s GDP growth rate at a glance
It can be recalled that Nigeria’s gross domestic products grew by about 1.9% in 2018 from the 0.8% recorded in 2017. This growth, however, was attributed to the pick-up in the growth of the non-oil sector of the nation’s economy.
Africa’s largest economics
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that about 60% of the economic output from sub-Saharan Africa emanates from Nigeria, Angola and South Africa. Although, these countries’ contributions to the growth momentum has been hindered by various challenges such as the trade war.
This decline in the growth rate within the sub-Saharan countries led to a projection of 2.8% for the 2019 forecast as against the initial 3.3% growth rate projections for the region.
We will sure have better projections if the challenges faced by these countries are curbed.
The Way Forward
The International Monetary Fund, through its chief economist for Africa at the bank, has called on Nigeria and other countries within Africa to adopt the use of information technology in their operations. This, he said is to help shore up the annual growth rate within the continent by about 2%.
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