Nigeria’s growth projection lowers to 3.2% against 3.4% record in July — IMF report
The International Monetary Fund has lowered Nigeria’s 2022 economic growth projection to 3.2 per cent.
This is 0.2 percentage points lower than the 3.4 per cent projected in its July 2022 report.
The Washington-based institution disclosed this on Tuesday in its World Economic Outlook for October 2022 titled, “Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis.” The report also downgraded the economic growth projection for sub-Saharan Africa from 3.8 per cent to 3.6 per cent.
According to the IMF, this downgrade was due to tighter financial and monetary conditions.
The report read in part, “This weaker outlook reflects lower trading partner growth, tighter financial and monetary conditions, and a negative shift in the commodity terms of trade.”
Overall, the financial institution said global growth was projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 per cent in 2021 to 3.6 per cent in 2022 and 2023.
Speaking in a separate event titled, ‘Climate Change and Food Insecurity in Sub-saharan Africa,’ an analyst at the African Department IMF, Mai Farid, warned that the recent incidents of flooding in some states in Nigeria would worsen food insecurity and lead to further increase in food inflation.
Farid said, “We are very cognizant of the challenge that the flood of that magnitude and how it affected Nigeria in neighbouring countries. We also recognise Chad and Cameroon have also been hit.
“And absolutely, you’re totally right in terms of the supply of agricultural production. It is going to drop which will put even further pressure on prices. And in addition, the floods have affected some of the transportation networks which makes it even harder for food to transfer into the country or even out in any essential storage.”
Farid added that Africa was the most food-insecure region not prepared for the outcomes of climate change.
“Africa is a region most vulnerable to climate change yet the least prepared. Over the past decade, food insecurity in Africa has been rising faster than in the rest of the world,” she added.
