IMF Cuts Nigeria’s 2024 Growth Projection to 3.1% Amid Weak Q1

The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has reviewed downwards its forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth in 2024 from 3.3 per cent which it forecast earlier to 3.1 per cent, citing weaker growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.

 In its July 2024 World Economic Outlook released on Tuesday, the IMF downward review is 0.2 per cent lower than its previous 3.3 per cent growth forecast.

This is following the 2.98 per cent first quarter 2024 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

 Despite the downward review of its growth projection for 2024, the IMF retained its growth projection for Nigeria for 2025 at 3.0 per cent.

As a result of the lower forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth, the IMF also downgraded its forecast for Sub-Saharan economic growth in 2024 to 3.7 per cent from the April WEO forecast of 3.8 per cent. However, it raised the economic growth forecast for the region in 2025 to 4.1 per cent from 4.0.

“The forecast for growth in sub-Saharan Africa is revised downward, mainly as a result of a 0.2 percentage point downward revision to the growth outlook in Nigeria amid weaker than expected activity in the first quarter of this year,” the IMF said.