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COVID-19: Nigeria Is Heading Towards Recession – Minister Of Finance

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3 years ago

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Finance minister Zainab Ahmed has revealed that the current coronavirus pandemic and falling prices could push Nigeria into recession.

Ms Ahmed made the comments following Thursday’s National Economic Summit in Abuja.

“On the economy, COVID-19 has resulted in the collapse in prices,” she said. “This will impact negatively, and the impact has already started showing on the federation’s revenues and on the foreign exchange earnings.
“Net and gas revenue and influx to the federation account in the first quarter of 2020 amounted to N940.91billion. This represented a shortfall of N125. 52billion or 31% of the prorated amount that is supposed to have been realized by the end of that first quarter.”
The economic contraction will multiply the poverty of the poor, she added.

“That misery will only multiply the crisis,” she said. “In the worst case scenario, Nigeria’s economic development, which is the GDP, could contract by as much as – 8.94 per cent in 2020. Even in the best case, which is the case that we are working on, if there is no fiscal stimulus, it will be a contraction of -4.4 per cent. Yet this contraction can be mitigated with the fiscal stimulus package we are working on, so we could end up with a negative – 0.59 percent.

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