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Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has predicted that the current economic recession being faced in the country will end soon.
Ahmed gave the prediction while speaking at the 26th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) on Monday, explaining that the pandemic was responsible for the recent entry into recession.
She said the current economic growth trend and the many complementary fiscal, real sector and monetary interventions proactively introduced by the government to forestall a far worse decline, suggest the nation will exit the recession before the end of the first quarter of 2021.
“Let me remind us that before the impact of COVID-19, the Nigerian economy was experiencing sustained growth, which had been improving quarter by quarter until the second quarter of 2020 when the impact of the COVID-19 was felt,” the Minister said.
“Nigeria is not alone in this, but I will say that Nigeria has outperformed all of these economies in terms of the record of a negative growth.
“While the economy has entered into recession in the third quarter, the trend of the growth suggests that this will be a short-lived recession, and indeed by the fourth or, at worst, the first quarter of 2021, the country will exit recession.
“Our expectation of a quick exit, which will be historically fast, is anchored on the several complementary fiscal, real sector and monetary interventions that have been proactively introduced by government to forestall a far worse decline of the economy and alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic.”
