Nigeria has witnessed many downfalls in the recent time. After a few quarters of negative growth that saw the death of businesses, the Nigerian economy is out of recession, but “conditions remain difficult for businesses,” World Economics said on Tuesday. World Economics is a London-based organisation dedicated to producing financial analysis, insight and data relating to questions of key importance to the world economy.
“April Sales Managers’ Index (SMI) data suggests that the Nigerian economy is continuing to grow out of the recession which saw 10 months of consecutive contraction in 2016,” it said in a release published on its website.
It further stated:
“The Market Growth Index grew to 58.5 in April as the monthly Sales Growth Index ticked up to 56.7, its highest value since 2015 and representative of rapid growth. Price inflation for April, which is tracked by the Prices Charged Index, remained high at 58.7 – indicative of high levels of inflation – however, a slowing trend has developed for the past 9 months.”
In additon, Nigeria’s economy receded at the end of Q2 in 2016 after falling oil prices ate deep into the country’s earnings and caused the naira to weaken thereby causing inflation to spiral upward. Spates of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta by militants, who were protesting for better deals from the government, almost crippled oil production. But the government’s recent engagements in the oil-rich region, spearheaded by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has seen attacks on oil facilities petered out, at least, for now. These efforts created an avenue for economic growth.
Recently, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the inflation rate dropped by 0.52 percent in March to close at 17.26 percent, the second decline recorded in two months.
“This is the second consecutive month of a decline in the headline CPI on a year-on-year basis, it represents the effects of stabilising prices in already high food and non-food prices as well as favourable base effects over 2016 prices.” NBS said in its report.
However, World Economics further noted that there are still issues the economy handlers need to fix before it can be out of the woods.
“Panellists have explained that although conditions remain difficult for businesses, they are adapting to the challenges and the recent changes to the Naira’s FX rate are aiding sales transactions.”
To cap it all, conditions in Nigeria have improved further over the past months and managers are expressing renewed optimism that the economy will continue to grow and regain strength after the recession. Survey has shown positive economic prospects for Nigeria. It has also been observed that the government is trying really hard to curb the situation which is getting better.
In response, UN commends the launching of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery Plan which has so far made impacts in the country’s improvement. It was also confirmed that the Nigeria economy rose by 0.8% recently which illustrates that recession is fading out.
Nigerians are delighted as many agree with the World Economics. Many also confirmed that the inflation rate in the country is reducing as well as the currency exchange rate is getting better.
