Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal overtake Nigeria on economic growth index –IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has listed four African countries among emerging economies that have developed quicker positive growth index for the next 10 years, without Nigeria being mentioned.

Included among the countries are Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal, which are said to have fallen in the prime category of emerging economies, while Nigeria, which it describes as a country with more viable resources, fell within the second category, along with Morocco and Mauritius.

The Fund in its October 2016 Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, made available to Ripples Nigeria, identified the slow policy response of Nigeria, as leading oil exporting country in sub-Saharan Africa, to be responsible for the economic crisis affecting the West African region.

“For Nigeria to come off easily from its present economic challenges,” IMF stated, “it has to seek a better way of restructuring its economy by allowing more private sectors’ participation through concessioning of public assets currently draining its economy.”

On the projected economic growth in the sub-Saharan Africa, the Fund said 2016 would slow to its lowest level in more than 20 years, while an average growth is to be only 1.4 per cent, which is below its high population growth rate.

According to the IMF, director, African Department, Abebe Aemro Selassie, Nigeria can only survive the recession, if it employs more financing discipline, adding that, “poor policy response in Nigeria may have affected many of the countries in the region.”

Read also: Nigeria shuts down 4 offshore oil rigs in 4 months, refuses to give reasons

Selassie stated: “The policy response in many of the hardest hit countries has been slow and piecemeal, often accompanied by stopgap measures such as central bank financing and the accumulation of arrears leading to rapidly rising public debt.

“As a result, the delayed adjustment and ensuing policy uncertainty have been deterring investment and stifling new sources of growth, making a return to strong growth rates more difficult.”

“This implies fully allowing the exchange rate to absorb external pressures for countries outside monetary unions, re-establishing macroeconomic stability, by tightening monetary policy where needed to tackle sharp increases in inflation.”

The irony is that most non-oil producing countries, according to IMF were performing much better than the oil producing ones.

 

 

 

 

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