The Nigeria Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that the Nigerian economy is doing well compared to the economy of South Africa, Russia and other countries in recession.
The minister said the recession is inevitable as a result of the global collapse in oil prices occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
The minister disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking on NTA “Good Morning Nigeria Show.”
It has been reported that the country’s rising debt profile, inflation and unemployment are the contributing factors that made Nigerian economy shrank again in third quarter of the 2020.
This year recession is the worst in 36 years as reflected on the data obtained from the World Bank, which indicated that the country’s Gross Domestic Product dropped by 10.92 percent in 1983 and 1.2 percent in 1984.
In the report of the National Bureau of Statistics for the third quarter of 2020 released on Saturday, the GDP, which is the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell by 3.62 percent in the three months up till September.
However, the minister on Wednesday said the government is optimistic that with its intervention measures, the recession would not last long.
Lai Mohammed said, “It is true we are in a recession. Recession comes when a country records two consecutive quarters of negative growths. But we must go beyond that to understand that despite that, our economy is still very well in circumstances.
“The main reason why we have entered into this recession is the oil sector. The oil sector recorded -13.89% and that is the worst in 14 quarters. Of course, it is easy to understand why; with the pandemic, there is low demand for oil…but when you look at the non-oil sector which is about -2.51 % in Q3, it is far better than what it was in the Q2.
“Overall, yes, we are in a recession and it is inevitable but while our Q2 result was -6.1%, South Africa was -50% and as we speak today, Finland, Hungary, Spain, Mexico, Russia, Romania, Belgium, Austria have all fallen into recession.
“But we are very confident that with the intervention policies, with the fiscal and monetary interventions the government has put in place, the recession will be short-lived.”
