The projection of 23% in inflation rate by 2025 for Nigeria by the International Monetary Fund is one of the trending stories in the Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that in a recent release of its Global Economic Outlook at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., on Tuesday, the IMF provided projections for Nigeria’s economy, indicating a significant shift in inflation rates.
Division Chief of the IMF Research Department, Daniel Leigh, highlighted the impact of Nigeria’s economic reforms, including exchange rate adjustments, which have led to a surge in inflation rate to 33.2 percent in March.
Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 33.2 percent according to recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Also, the food inflation rate increased to over 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2024.
Leigh stated, “We see inflation declining to 23 per cent next year and then 18 percent in 2026.”
This is however different from the fund’s prediction of a new single-digit (15.5 per cent) inflation rate for 2025 which it predicted last year.
He further elaborated on Nigeria’s economic growth, which is expected to rise from 2.9 percent last year to 3.3 percent this year, attributing this expansion to the recovery in the oil sector, improved security, and advancements in agriculture due to better weather conditions and the introduction of dry season farming.
The newspaper says that worried by the country’s dwindling oil revenue, the Federal Government says it has concluded plans to take over all idle oil wells from operators holding on to them.
The government also threatened to revoke all licences given to individuals and companies that have refused to start oil exploration.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, disclosed this on Monday evening at an event held in Lagos by The Petroleum Club.
According to the minister, Nigerian has lost about $30bn to low oil production in the past two and half year.
Earlier in his opening speech, the Chairman of The Petroleum Club, Mr Austin Avuru, said the club had invited the minister to speak on the topic, ‘Funding Our Way Out of the Current Crisis: Looking Up to the Oil and Gas Industry.’
Avuru expressed worries that the country’s production keeps depleting while the government keeps giving figures different from those of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Speaking, the minister also expressed concern that Nigeria was losing about 480,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to the Seplat/ExxonMobil crisis.
He said the asset was producing about 600,000bpd until the crisis began in 2022, saying the nation was losing millions of dollars daily.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the Nigerian economy is moving in the right direction as policies of the new administration has started slowing down food inflation.
The minister spoke virtually on Channels Television’s Business Incorporated programme on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, USA.
Edun said the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, and himself are in Washington DC to showcase the progress made so far in the Nigerian economy.
The finance minister said, “The Economic Team of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is here to showcase the progress so far of his bold, courageous and strategic reforms of the Nigerian economy in order to get it stabilised and get investment in to get it growing again.
“We’ve all seen what has happened in terms of stabilising the exchange rate and inflation which is headed in the right direction.
“If you look closely at the numbers that came out yesterday (Monday), you will see that there is a slowing of the rate of increase of food inflation, things are moving in the right direction, government revenues are up, even oil revenues are up but not as much as we will like.”
“The President of the Economic Team, myself, and senior finance and economic officials have the following agenda items: development, climate change, extreme poverty, and how to garner resources internationally in order to achieve those goals. And most importantly, President Bola Tinubu is here to showcase the achievements of his courageous strategic reforms of the Nigerian economy in order to stabilize it and encourage investment in the country to get it growing again.
“We are here to emphasize what has been done so far in terms of stabilization achievement, and the inflation is still headed in the right direction. With the numbers that came up yesterday, you will see that there’s a slowing of the rate of increase in food inflation. Things are moving in the right direction; government revenues are up, and even our revenues are up.
The newspaper says that $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery has slashed the price of diesel by 16.6 per cent to N1,000 per litre, from N1, 200 per litre in order to assist in impacting Nigeria’s domestic economy.
The price of diesel was relatively high for months, due mainly to the importation of the product from the global market and foreign exchange crisis associated with it.
But in a statement obtained by Vanguard today, the company, stated: “In an unprecedented move, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced a further reduction of the price of diesel from 1200 to 1,000 naira per litre.
“While rolling out the products, the refinery supplied at a substantially reduced price of N1,200 per litre three weeks ago, representing over 30 per cent reduction from the previous market price of about N1,600 per litre.’
According to the company, “this significant reduction in the price of diesel, at Dangote Petroleum Refinery, is expected to positively affect all the spheres of the economy and ultimately reduce the high inflation rate in the country.”
Recently, Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said that his refinery’s capacity to sell diesel at greatly reduced prices would offer immediate relief to Nigeria’s inflation challenges.
Dangote revealed that his refinery had been selling diesel at N1,200 per litre, compared to the previous market price of N1,650–N1,700.
He added that he was expecting a dramatic reduction in fuel costs to help drive down inflation in the coming months.
Dangote made this known while speaking with newsmen after visiting President Bola Tinubu to celebrate Eid-El-Fitr in Lagos.
GIK/APA