Uche Usim, Abuja
In what proves the rapid recovery of Nigeria’s economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday revised its 2020 gross domestic growth projections for the Nigerian economy, saying it will contract by 4.3 per cent and not 5.4 per cent as it earlier projected.
This translates to a 1.1 percent improvement from the 5.4 percent that was projected in June and deeper than the 3.4 percent projected in April. The global bank made the disclosure in Washington DC at its annual meetings.
IMF Chief Economist and Director, Research Department, Gita Gopinath noted that oil-exporting countries were currently battling a twin blight of the health and economic impact of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of low oil prices.
“They have been hit by the health crisis and they have been hit because they are oil exporters which had a collapse and more importantly, they just don’t have the resources that advanced economies have to deal with this crisis,” Gopinath said.