Nigeria’s Economic Recovery Remains Fragile at 0.51 Percent Growth Rate – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) led Monetary Policy Committee on Tuesday said Nigeria’s economic recovery remains fragile given the growth rate of 0.51 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2021.

The apex bank disclosed this at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th of May 2021 in Abuja.

Therefore, in an effort to broaden productivity, strengthen new job creation and deepen ongoing progress, the committee said there is a need to consolidate on all administrative measures taken not only to rein inflation but also on the actions so far taken to grow output.

These measures must include “boosting consumption and investments, as well as diversifying the base of the economy through FX restrictions for the importation of goods and food products that can be produced in Nigeria. It also urged the Bank to continue to put in place measures that will boost export earnings.”

On consumption and investment, the committee agreed that the intervention facilities under the Anchor Borrowers must be aggressively pushed in agricultural processing, manufacturing and other key subsectors to broaden productivity.

The committee proffers two likely solutions to domestic economic development, which were to either aggressively address the high inflationary pressure or continue to pursue measures aimed at supporting the recovery.

“Whereas the Committee remained overwhelmingly committed to supporting the efforts of the Federal Government in ensuring full restoration of the productive capacity of the economy, members remained much more focused towards achieving price stability in the short to medium-term,” the committee stated in a statement signed by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

“The MPC noted that economic growth could be hampered in an environment of unstable prices. To this end, the choice therefore was between loosening the stance of policy to ease credit further or tighten to moderate price development or maintain a hold stance in order to allow previous policy measures continue to permeate the economy while observing global and domestic developments.”