Oscarline Onwuemenyi
24 May 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has assured Nigerians that the country would be out of recession in the 3rd quarter of the year following the positive economic indicators.
The governor stated this while briefing newsmen after the conclusion of that apex bank’s Monetary Policy Meeting, MPR, in Abuja.
Emefiele noted that the positive indicators such as inflation moving upwards and GDP moving up from negative aggregate are indications that by the third quarter of the year, the country will be out of recession.
The governor, however, noted that the committee voted to keep the MPR at 14%, CRR at 22.5% and the liquidity ratio at 30%.
The Nigerian economy contracted by – 0. 52 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth rate report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has shown.
The report, released on Tuesday, shows that with the economy maintaining a negative growth rate of -0.52 percent, the nation is still in recession.
The report showed that the growth rate for the first quarter of 2017 shows an improvement over the revised -1.73 per cent GDP growth rate figure the nation recorded in December 2016.
“In the first quarter of 2017, the nation’s GDP contracted by – 052 per cent (year on year) in real terms, representing the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction since Q 1 2016,” the NBS said in the report.
“This is higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 and higher by 1. 21 percentage points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter.”