Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms

In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in four decades, but growth resumed in the fourth quarter as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. As a res...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/389281623682704986/Resilience-through-Reforms
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35786
id okr-10986-35786
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-357862021-06-22T05:11:27Z Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms World Bank ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK DEVELOPMENT AGENDA OIL PRICES EXTERNAL SECTOR MONETARY POLICY CREDIT FISCAL TRENDS CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT POVERTY In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in four decades, but growth resumed in the fourth quarter as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. As a result, in 2020 the Nigerian economy experienced a smaller contraction (-1.8 percent) than had been projected when the pandemic began (-3.2 percent). As part of its response, the government carried out several long-delayed policy reforms, often against vocal opposition. Notably, the government (1) began to harmonize exchange rates; (2) began to eliminate gasoline subsidies; (3) started adjusting electricity tariffs to more cost-reflective levels; (4) cut nonessential spending and redirected resources to COVID-19 (coronavirus) responses at both the federal and the state levels; and (5) enhanced debt management and increased public-sector transparency, especially for oil and gas operations. By creating additional fiscal space and maximizing the impact of the government’s limited resources, these measures were critical in protecting the economy against a much deeper recession and in laying the foundation for earlier recovery. However, several critical reforms are as yet incomplete, which threatens Nigeria’s nascent recovery. In the baseline scenario, Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 1.8 percent in 2021. Despite the current favorable external environment, with oil prices recovering and growth in advanced economies, reform slippages would hinder the renewed economic expansion and undermine progress toward Nigeria’s development goals. In a risk scenario, in which the government fails to sustain recent macroeconomic and structural reforms, the pace of economic recovery would slow, and GDP growth couldbe just 1.1 percent in 2021. 2021-06-21T21:20:43Z 2021-06-21T21:20:43Z 2021-06 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/389281623682704986/Resilience-through-Reforms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35786 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Economic Updates and Modeling Africa Africa Western and Central (AFW) Nigeria
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
OIL PRICES
EXTERNAL SECTOR
MONETARY POLICY
CREDIT
FISCAL TRENDS
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
POVERTY
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
OIL PRICES
EXTERNAL SECTOR
MONETARY POLICY
CREDIT
FISCAL TRENDS
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
POVERTY
World Bank
Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Western and Central (AFW)
Nigeria
description In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in four decades, but growth resumed in the fourth quarter as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. As a result, in 2020 the Nigerian economy experienced a smaller contraction (-1.8 percent) than had been projected when the pandemic began (-3.2 percent). As part of its response, the government carried out several long-delayed policy reforms, often against vocal opposition. Notably, the government (1) began to harmonize exchange rates; (2) began to eliminate gasoline subsidies; (3) started adjusting electricity tariffs to more cost-reflective levels; (4) cut nonessential spending and redirected resources to COVID-19 (coronavirus) responses at both the federal and the state levels; and (5) enhanced debt management and increased public-sector transparency, especially for oil and gas operations. By creating additional fiscal space and maximizing the impact of the government’s limited resources, these measures were critical in protecting the economy against a much deeper recession and in laying the foundation for earlier recovery. However, several critical reforms are as yet incomplete, which threatens Nigeria’s nascent recovery. In the baseline scenario, Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 1.8 percent in 2021. Despite the current favorable external environment, with oil prices recovering and growth in advanced economies, reform slippages would hinder the renewed economic expansion and undermine progress toward Nigeria’s development goals. In a risk scenario, in which the government fails to sustain recent macroeconomic and structural reforms, the pace of economic recovery would slow, and GDP growth couldbe just 1.1 percent in 2021.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
title_short Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
title_full Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
title_fullStr Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
title_full_unstemmed Nigeria Development Update, June 2021 : Resilience through Reforms
title_sort nigeria development update, june 2021 : resilience through reforms
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/389281623682704986/Resilience-through-Reforms
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35786
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