Nume Ekeghe
The Head of Investment Research, Parthians Securities Limited, Oluwaseun Dosunmu has stated that the stance taken by the monetary authorities would see inflation figures trend downwards in 2023.
He also noted that he foresee interest rates would remain high this year in a bid to still reign inflation and also that the economic activities and outlook for the second half of the year are dependent on the outcomes of the upcoming elections.
He said this recently at the Parthians webinar titled, “An investor’s guide to building wealth on the Nigerian Exchange.”
Dosunmu said: “Outlook for the Nigerian economy, we know that the elephant in the room for 2023 has to do with the elections. And a lot of comments and questions have been hovering around that space. What will the outcome be like and what policies and things like that. we believe the elections will have a major role to play on the Nigerian economy this year.
“On Inflation, we see elevated inflation levels, and we expect that inflation might start to decline. It might not be at the same rate at which it increased, last year but we expect that inflation would decline to an extent.
“We expect to expect the CBN to continue to, adopt the hawkish stance, it might not be as aggressive as last year, but we expect interest rates to still remain high, at least for the most part of 2023.”
He added that the foreign exchange market would be stable the first half of the year and that it would be a burning issue for the next administration.
He said: “The exchange rates exchange rates are still a major, major issue in the Nigerian economy. While we really do not expect the exchange rates to decline in terms of the exchange rate between the naira and the USD, we believe we would see some form of stability for now and towards the elections and after the elections. The outcome of the elections will most likely decide where or how the exchange rates would move, going forward.”
Furthermore, speaking on foreign investors, he added that the again policies would be needed by the new administration to lure both foreign portfolio investors and foreign direct investors.
