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| Okonjo–Iweala |
The Coordinating Minister for the economy and Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo–Iweala, yesterday disclosed that with the country’s election looming,
2015 would be a tough and brutal year in maintaining a strong macroeconomic
performance the country has recorded in recent times.
Okonjo–Iweala, however,
assured that she is determined to ensure that the country’s strong
macroeconomic performance of recent years and reform agenda do not slip.
The finance minister who
realises that she will be targeted by opposition politicians jostling for power
ahead of elections in February 2015 and keen to denounce the government’s
economic policies said, “It will be brutal,” she tells The Banker in Abuja,
“We’re going to see extreme bashing. Somebody has to be the scapegoat,” she
added.
According to her,
“Nigeria’s strong macroeconomic performance in the past five years has seen its
standing abroad rise considerably. Many frontier and emerging market investors
crave exposure to the oil-rich West African country’s rapidly growing economy
and population of 170 million, by far the largest in Africa.
Jim O’Neill, the
influential former Goldman Sachs chief economist, has dubbed it, alongside
Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey, a MINT – a group whose global significance he
believes will only increase.”
Yet for all the
hype, Okonjo-Iweala knows that investors will be watching Nigeria closely
to see that its reforms and its fiscal and monetary record do not unravel in
the run up to voting.
To help ensure that does not happen, she has
proposed a largely conservative budget for 2014. It forecasts a small deficit
of 1.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is based on a real growth
rate of 6.75per cent , which is slightly below the International Monetary
Fund’s estimate. Total spending will be reduced by 7 per cent from 2013 to
N4640billion ($28.5billion).
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