The Minister of
Finance, Kemi Adeosun has enunciated the economic strategy of the Buhari
administration, even as she explained that the 2016 Budget deficit may be
increased from the current N2.2 trillion in the draft document before the
National Assembly, to N3 trillion, should the price of crude oil continue
to fall.
The Minister, in
an essay sent to the media, said even if the prices of oil fall further, the
federal government will not reduce spending on infrastructure i.e. Transport,
Roads, Housing and Power. In the essay, entitled “Nigeria’s economy: The road
to recovery”, the Minister said: “Our deficit will expand by N0.8trn to N3trn,
which will be 3per cent of GDP. This is still within the comfort zone for the
international rating agencies.” She also shed light on the economic strategy of
the Buhari administration which she said is built on four pillars.
She enumerated
these pillars to be: To stimulate the economy and achieve a real GDP growth
rate of 4.2 per cent in 2017; To reduce the cost of governance, extract
efficiencies in public service and enhance revenue collections; To increase
government expenditure on infrastructure i.e. Transport, Roads, Housing and Power
with a view to achieving a substantial increase in gross capital formation
and;To fund the budget deficit and the negative trade balance in a cost
effective and efficient manner, which will keep us within the acceptable debt
sustainable ratio that is expected of most emerging economies
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