Finance Minister admits Nigeria is in recession

Gbenga Bada 23:31 - 21 July 2016

Nigeria's Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun speaks after the inauguration of the Efficiency Unit during an interview with Reuters in Abuja, Nigeria, November 30, 2015. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

The minister of finance,

The minister admitted International Monetary Fund claims while appearing before the Nigerian Senate on Thursday, July 21, 2016 saying the recession was precipitated by months of ‘negative growth’.

In her words, “Technically. If you go into two quarters of negative growth, technically you are in recession. But I don’t think we should dwell on the definition. I think we should really dwell on where we are going.”

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However, Adeosun predicted that any recession would be “very short” saying “the policy that we have will ensure that we don’t go below where we need to go.”

Continuing, she said, “I don’t think we should panic. I think we need to be confident around what we are doing and where we are going. I remain extremely confident about Nigeria. The IMF has given their projection, which is that we may continue into negative territory. I’m not sure that what we are seeing suggests that.”

On Tuesday, July 19, 2016, the International Monetary Fund had said that Nigeria’s economy would contract by 1.8 percent in 2016 after having forecast a 2.3-percent expansion in April.