IMF Sees ‘Exceptionally High’ 2010 Growth for Nigeria
November 24, 2010, 6:44 PM EST
By Paul Okolo and Sandrine Rastello
(Updates with details on foreign reserves from fourth paragraph.)
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said Nigeria’s economic growth is expected to be “exceptionally high” this year thanks to a “strong recovery” in oil production and growth in other industries.
Still “inflation remains stubbornly high and international reserves continue to fall as the authorities support the exchange rate,” W. Scott Rogers, the IMF mission chief for Nigeria, said in an e-mailed statement today in Washington.
The IMF recommended the country’s central bank “conduct monetary policy with a view to reducing inflation to a single- digit level,” according to the statement.
Foreign currency reserves stood at $34.3 billion as of Nov. 15, compared with $34.6 billion at the end of October, the governor of the central bank, Lamido Sanusi, said yesterday. Reserves, which were $58 billion in March 2008, have been used to defend the local currency following an increase in demand for dollars from local rice and fuel importers, he said.
“The depletion has stopped” because the central bank has taken necessary action to stop the dwindling of the reserves, Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga told reporters today in Abuja. The country has a “plan” to increase the reserves, he added, without providing further details.
--Editors: Kevin Costelloe, Andrew Barden