Economy - Business Metrics

Inflation defies border reopening order, peaks at 15.75% YoY

Jan 16, 2021 Ugochi Emmanuel

Inflation defies border reopening order, peaks at 15.75% YoY Inflationary pressure on cost of items in Nigeria has raged on unabated in December as headline inflation peaked at 15.75 per cent year-on-year in the month, setting highest record in 32 months. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed in its just released consumer price index (CPI) report for December that inflation spiked by 0.86 percentage points in December, compared with November 2020 record of 14.89 per cent. According to the report, increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual…

Angola’s economy to get boost with fresh $488m IMF loan

Jan 13, 2021 Ugochi Emmanuel

Angola’s economy to get boost with fresh $488m IMF loan The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of $488 million to Angola and reiterated its confidence that Africa’s second-biggest oil producer will rein in public debt to sustainable levels. The disbursement approved by the executive board comes four months after the Washington-based lender increased the size of the loan by almost a quarter to $4.5 billion to help Angola weather the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The three-year Extended Fund Facility, which began in 2018, aims to overhaul…

Analysts forecast 0.51% spike in December inflation

Jan 12, 2021 Banjo Olaniran

Analysts forecast 0.51% spike in December inflation As Nigerians await the latest official inflation figure from the National Bureau of Statistics, analysts at Financial Derivatives Limited (FDC) have forecasted 15.4 per cent inflation rate According to analysts “Based on our survey and regression model, headline inflation is expected to increase by 0.51 per cent to 15.4per cent in December 2020. This will be the highest level in three years. “The continued rise in the general price level is driven largely by forex rationing, output and productivity constraints, higher logistics and distribution…

IMF lowers China’s growth in 2021; warns of financial dangers

Jan 9, 2021 Omobayo Azeez

IMF lowers China’s growth in 2021; warns of financial dangers The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday lowered its 2021 growth forecast for China to 7.9 per cent, following a year of “significant human and economic costs” inflicted by the Covid-19 crisis. The figure is slightly below the 8.2 percent the IMF earlier predicted, although China has been pegged as the only major economy likely to expand in the face of the coronavirus. Also, China urgently needs to take steps to contain financial stability risks as the economy’s recovery…

World Bank cuts Nigeria’s 2021 growth forecast; explains why

Jan 6, 2021 Ugochi Emmanuel

World Bank cuts Nigeria’s 2021 growth forecast; explains why The World Bank has revised downwards Nigeria’s 2021 growth forecast to 1.1 per cent from the 1.7 per cent it projected for the country in June last year. The bank, which made the forecast in its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday, said it cut Nigeria’s growth forecast for this year by 0.6 per cent because it expects economic activity in the country to be “dampened by low oil prices, falling public investment due to weak government revenue,…

Nigeria’s public debt profile hits N32.22trn

Jan 4, 2021Jan 4, 2021 Banjo Olaniran

Nigeria’s public debt profile hits N32.22trn As debt servicing costs N1.99trn in 9 months Revenue shortfalls, COVID-19 trigger aggressive borrowing Analysts’s fear comes true Aggregate public debt stock in Nigeria has soared by N1.21 trillion in the third quarter of last year to hit N32.22 trillion amid revenue shortfalls. This is as the country spent almost N1.99 trillion on debt servicing payments from January to September 2020, the latest data obtained from the Debt Management Office (DMO) have shown. The debt stock is made up of the domestic and…

2020: A year of extraordinary uncertainty & unprecedented events

Dec 31, 2020 Business Metrics

2020: A year of extraordinary uncertainty & unprecedented events By FXTM Analyst, Lukman Otunuga It only felt like yesterday that the United States and China reached a ‘phase one’ trade deal and Parliament backed Boris Johnson’s plan to leave the European Union on 31st January 2020. Such encouraging developments lifted investor confidence and raised optimism over the outlook for 2020. Unknown to all, the global economy was in store for a nasty shocker as a string of unforgettable and distressing events rocked financial markets – ultimately cementing their places in…

ABCON: COVID-19, forex volatility portend more woes for businesses except…

Dec 31, 2020Dec 31, 2020 Ugochi Emmanuel

ABCON: COVID-19, forex volatility portend more woes for businesses except… Foreign exchange (forex) scarcity in Nigeria portend a more difficult operation environment for businesses of various scales in the country, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, the president of Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has warned. Gwadabe, who disclosed this during a chat in Lagos added that the Nigerian business environment is becoming more hostile and unbearable for local manufacturers, foreign operators and Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) due to the escalating exchange rates, foreign…

Buhari set to sign N13.58trn 2021 budget tomorow

Dec 30, 2020Dec 30, 2020 Umar Suleiman

Buhari set to sign N13.58trn 2021 budget Thursday, last day of 2020 Barring any last minute change in plan, President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the 2021 Appropriation Bill into law tomorrow, Thursday, it was gathered. The National Assembly had last Monday passed the N13.58 trillion budget for the next fiscal year. It had been the desire of the present regime to restore the country’s budget to January to December cycle. This was achieved with the 2020 budget which Buhari signed into law on December 17, 2019. It is also…

APPLY: BoI readies fresh $1bn loan at single digit interest rate

Dec 30, 2020 Omobayo Azeez

APPLY: BoI readies fresh $1bn loan at single digit interest rate The Bank of Industry (BoI) has announced the successful conclusion of a landmark $1 billion loan syndication transaction aimed at improving the capacity of the bank to effectively support Micro, Small, Medium (MSMEs) and Large enterprises across key sectors. According to a statement from the bank, the transaction marked the third major international debt syndication deal successfully concluded by BoI within the last three years. The bank recalled that in 2018, it had raised the sum of $750m,…