By Omodele Adigun with agency report
Less than four months to the end of the year, JP Morgan has predicted that Nigerian economy would grow by 1.5 per cent this year, lower than analysts estimate.
This was disclosed by the global bank analysts including Gbolahan Taiwo and Ayomide Mejabi in an email reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday afternoon.
The report stated that Nigeria’s economy would likely expand by 1.5 per cent in 2021.
They added that the “continued lack of foreign-exchange liquidity, underlying economic weakness, an emerging third wave of Covid-19 infections and a slow rollout of vaccines will likely slow the recovery process.”
JP Morgan’s estimates are lower than IMF’s forecast which Nairametrics reported in April. The International Monetary Fund lifted its global growth outlook to 6 per cent in 2021 (0.5 per cent point upgrade) and 4.4 per cent in 2022 (0.2 per centage point upgrade), after an estimated historic contraction of -3.3 per cent in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing that Nigeria is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent in 2021 and 2.3 per cent by 2022, while South Africa is projected to hit growths of 3.1 per cent and 2.0 per cent for the respective years in focus.
In July, the Federal Government forecast that the Nigerian economy would grow by as much as 4.2 per cent in 2022. This was disclosed by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, at the Public Consultation on the Draft 2022 to 2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.