SARAH ALADE

摘要

Q Does Nigeria have an effective balance of monetary and fiscal policies in place to deal with the challenges currently facing the country's economy? A After experiencing an average growth rate of 7% over the past decade, gross domestic product [GDP] growth in the second quarter of 2016 stood at -2.6%. The Nigerian economy is facing a number of challenges as a result of the oil price slump. These include low government revenue, low capital inflow, a high unemployment rate, large currency depreciation and low financial buffers. The inflation rate reached a high of 17.1% in July, eroding consumers' real purchasing power and decreasing aggregate demand. The rising inflationary pressure is due to structural and cost-push factors, low industrial activities, high electricity tariffs, and the pass-through effects of the depreciation of the naira into inflation. The government's fiscal balances deteriorated to -3.7% of GDP in 2015.