Yari’s alarm: CBN rules out recession

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that there is no recession in view for the country.
This came as the Zamfara State Governor, Abduaziz Yari, said two days ago that another recession was imminent.
Yari, who is the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), raised the alarm at the opening of a three-day retreat for returning governors and governors-elect in Abuja on Monday, thus urging them to prepare hard.
‘The Nation’, however reports that the CBN Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Dr. Joseph Nnanna, who represented CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, dismissed the claim at the public presentation of the Spring 2019 edition of Regional Economic Outlook (REO) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Abuja.
“We are making smooth progress towards growth and by end of 2019, all things being equal, we are going to likely have between 2.8 per cent and three per cent GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate,” he said, adding that since the third quarter of 2016, when Nigeria started coming out of recession, the apex band had embarked on tight monetary policy in all its ramifications.

“Right now, we are on the path of achieving our price stability goal of single-digit inflation. Are we going to witness increased inflation or are we sliding back into recession? My answer is no. But is that adequate? My answer is no. Three per cent GDP real growth rate is not enough for Nigeria where our population growth rate is 3.2 per cent. Per capita growth rate is still negative but definitely, we are not going through the era of 2016 when we had a recession. That won’t happen – hopefully. Not under CBN watch.”
The major problem afflicting Nigeria’s labour sector, Nnanna said, is more of underemployment than outright unemployment “because majority of Nigerians are employed one way or another, but they are functioning below capacity. They are engaged in the informal sector, which is not performing optimally. We also have a huge infrastructure deficit. Infrastructure is the major constraint to economic development and growth. This has to be repaired.”