Business
Nigeria: 2012 growth revised to 6-7 percent
(Reuters) -The Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revised down the country’s growth forecasts to 6-7 percent on Wednesday, from 7-8 percent previously.
“We can do 6-7 percent this year. That would be very good,” she told a news briefing during an African Development Bank AfDB annual meeting in the Tanzanian city of Arusha.
During the budget presentation for 2012, the government of Nigeria had forecast 7-8 percent growth.
The economy of Nigeria, grew 6.17 percent in the first quarter of this year, down from 7.68 percent growth in the previous quarter, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed last week.
“We have been growing at an average of 7 percent these past few years but now we have a dip in first quarter growth … This is understandable given the drop in agricultural activity in the north due to … disturbances,” Okonjo-Iweala said, referring to the insurgency by Islamist sect Boko Haram in the north.
The central bank has put lower growth down to falling crude oil prices and domestic oil output, which mean Nigeria faces a potentially sustained slowdown. Worries over growth persuaded it not to raise interest rates above 12 percent this month despite higher inflation.
Year-on-year inflation rose to 12.9 percent in April, from 12.1 in the previous month.
“We hope to get inflation down to the low double-digits or high single-digits by the end of the year,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
The economy of Nigeria has been one of the fastest growing in the world.
The finance ministry also revealed Wednesday, that Nigeria has already spent half its 2012 budget for a massive fuel consumption subsidy on arrears for last year, raising the prospect it may have to scrap the scheme or issue debt just to sustain it.
The government attempted to remove the subsidy in January but popular protest forced its partial reinstatement.
Okonjo-Iweala said January had been “a slow month” because of the strikes that shutdown economic activity during protests.