World Bank: Nigeria Faces Prospects of Fragile Economic Recovery in 2017

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The World Bank has revealed that Nigeria faces a prospect of fragile economic recovery in 2017, ‎given a high degree of fragility and risks from future shocks to the oil price or further unrest in the Niger Delta region, which is not yet fully stabilised.

‎The World Bank’s in its newly-released Bi-annual Economic Update said that Nigeria could build on the oil-driven economic recovery anticipated for it in 2017 by strengthening its macroeconomic policy framework and implementing the structural reforms needed to diversify the economy and break out of a boom and bust cycle.

The World Bank Senior Communication Officer in Nigeria Olufunke‎ Olufon disclosed this in a statement issued Sunday in Abuja.

The World Bank added that in 2016, Nigeria

experienced its first full year recession in 25 years, with global oil prices reaching a 13-year low and oil production was crushed by vandalism and militant attacks in the Niger Delta, resulting in severe contraction of oil GDP.

The economic update highlighted that although the oil sector represents only 8.4 per cent of GDP in 2016, lower foreign exchange earnings from oil exports have spillover effects on non-oil sectors – industry and services -dependent on imports of inputs and raw materials, and overall real GDP contracted by 1.5 per cent.

More to follow…

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