Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has assured that despite the slowdown in global economic growth, the Federal Government has no plans for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the moment.
Instead, she said the nation’s economic management team was working on contingency plans, beginning with analysing various modules and scenarios in terms of oil price shocks.
Okonjo-Iweala, who spoke in Washington DC, United States, on Sunday, said the World Bank Group at its just concluded 2014 Annual Meetings deliberated extensively on the very uncertain mode of the global economy at this point which is expected to grow at just 3.8 per cent for 2015.
The worries, she added, stems from the fact that although the U.S. economy was growing appreciably, just like the UK, but the Euro zone is still experiencing stagnated growth, just like Japan, China and other important drivers of global growth.
The group, she assured, however, noted that Nigeria’s economic growth rate remains robust at 6.5 per cent, remaining one of the world’s fastest.
With oil price dropping steadily to about $84 per barrel of Brent crude, she said the World Bank noted the need for Nigeria to tread with caution.
As a result, she said the Federal Government needs to calibrate this reality into the management of the economy, particularly the 2015 budget.
The World Bank and IMF at a meeting on Saturday, she continued, noted the need for countries in Nigeria’s category to prepare contingency plans “should the slow growth (in the global economy) and oil prices continue to drop.
“One way of doing this, the World Bank Group said, is for the Federal Government to build its fiscal buffers as back up for the economy, in addition to the fact that we need to continue our structure reforms just like in the Euro zone.”
In building external reserves, she said, “the IMF told us we need $6.3 billion. We are now on $4.1 billion. We would look at how we would strengthen the buffer.
×Daily Independent
