April’s fiscal report reveals widening deficit and plummeting consumer credit – CBN
By Esther Agbo
The Federal Government’s fiscal deficit reached N824.79 billion in April 2024, reflecting a slight increase from the N823.91 billion recorded in March.
This development was highlighted in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) latest Monthly Economic Report, released recently.
While the 0.1 percent rise in the deficit might appear marginal, it exceeds the government’s budgeted deficit of N764.19 billion for the period by 7.92 percent.
The report attributes this uptick to a decrease in retained revenue, which fell by 0.55 percent from March’s figure of N422.23 billion to N419.91 billion in April.
The CBN linked this revenue drop primarily to reduced receipts from exchange gains.
The report also points to a decrease in government expenditure, which fell by 0.16 percent month-on-month to N1.246 trillion in April, down from N1.244 trillion in March.
This reduction is mainly due to cuts in capital spending, with the report showing that capital expenditures made up just 6.3 percent of total spending, while recurrent expenditures dominated at 84.5 percent.
The report read, “The provisional data showed that aggregate expenditure of the FGN declined due to reduced capital spending.
“At N1,244.71 billion, provisional data indicated that expenditure was 0.12 percent below the level in the preceding month, and 48.10 percent short of the projected spending of N2,398.12 billion.
“The decline was attributed, largely, to a reduction in capital outlay in the review period. Further analysis showed that recurrent and capital accounted for 84.5 and 6.30 percent, respectively, while transfer payments constituted 9.2 percent.”
On the consumer credit front, the report reveals a significant 53.83 percent decline, with outstanding credit dropping to N3.8 trillion in April.
The decrease is largely attributed to a steep 60.79 per cent fall in personal loans, which totaled N2.95 trillion. Despite this, retail loans saw an 18.81 percent increase, reaching N856.77 billion, indicating a shift in consumer borrowing patterns amidst the challenging economic environment driven by high-interest rates.
The CBN said, “A decomposition indicated that personal loans accounted for 77.48 per cent of the total consumer credit, while retail loans accounted for the balance.”
