IMF lowers Nigeria’s 2024 growth projection over insecurity, severe flooding

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded Nigeria’s economic growth to 2.9 per cent in 2024.

The fund, in its Global Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday, lowered Nigeria’s growth forecast based on insecurity in oil-producing areas, the impact of floods and lower-than-expected activity in the first half of the year.

The report was presented by Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF’s Director of Research Department, and Daniel Leigh, the Division Chief.

IMF had earlier projected Nigeria’s growth to be 3.3 per cent in 2024 in April but lowered its forecast to 3.1 per cent in July.

The report noted that global growth is expected to remain stable yet underwhelming in the year.

Part of the report read: “In emerging market and developing economies, disruptions to production and shipping of commodities—especially oil—conflicts, civil unrest, and extreme weather events have led to downward revisions to the outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia and that for sub-Saharan Africa.

“These have been compensated for by upgrades to the forecast for emerging Asia, where surging demand for semiconductors and electronics, driven by significant investments in artificial intelligence, has bolstered growth, a trend supported by substantial public investment in China and India.

“Five years from now, global growth should reach 3.1 per cent—a mediocre performance compared with the prepandemic average.”