Budget office confirms Nigerian economy bound for recession

Nigerian economy forecast to contract by at least 8 per cent in 2020

As we earlier reported this week, the head of the Nigerian budget office, Ben Akabueze has confirmed that the Nigerian economy is headed for a recession in the 3rd quarter of 2020.

Akabueze confirmed this on Thursday, citing the impact of low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic on Africa’s largest economy.

Ben Akabueze, Director-General of the budget office, told reporters it was expected that growth in the third quarter would be negative and the country might fall into recession.

Earlier this week, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS

the economy contracted by 6.1 per cent between April and June, 2020.

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According to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS released the Q2 2020 GDP report which showed that the economy contracted by 6.1 per cent between April and June 2020.

According to the NBS, “the decline was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown efforts aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Analysts already forecast that the economy will slide into a full-blown recession in Q3, especially with companies forced to shed jobs, inflation rising and foreign exchange scarcity worsening the impact of naira devaluation.