THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downwards its baseline forecast, stating that growth is expected to slow from 6.1 per cent last year to 3.2 per cent in 2022.
The projection, which was released Tuesday in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) for July 2022, indicates 0.4 percentage point lower than that of the April 2022 WEO.
Describing the outlook as “gloomy and more uncertain,” the IMF added that a tentative recovery in 2021 has been followed by increasingly gloomy developments in 2022 as risks began to materialise.
It noted that global output contracted in the second quarter of this year, owing to downturns in China and Russia, while US consumer spending undershot expectations.
“Several shocks have hit a world economy already weakened by the pandemic, higher-than-expected inflation worldwide – especially in the United States and major European economies – triggering tighter financial conditions; a worse-than-anticipated slowdown in China, reflecting COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns; and further negative spillovers from the war in Ukraine.
“The baseline forecast is for growth to slow from 6.1 per cent last year to 3.2 per cent in 2022, 0.4 percentage point lower than in the April 2022 World Economic Outlook,” the IMF stated.
The Fund explained that lower growth earlier this year reduced household purchasing power and tighter monetary policy drove a downward revision of 1.4 percentage points in the United States.
In China, it noted that further lockdowns and the deepening real estate crisis have led growth to be revised down by 1.1 percentage points, with major global spillovers, and in Europe, significant downgrades reflect spillovers from the war in Ukraine and tighter monetary policy.
“Global inflation has been revised up due to food and energy prices as well as lingering supply-demand imbalances, and is anticipated to reach 6.6 per cent in advanced economies and 9.5 per cent in emerging market and developing economies this year – upward revisions of 0.9 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively.
“In 2023, disinflationary monetary policy is expected to bite with global output growing by just 2.9 per cent. The risks to the outlook are overwhelmingly tilted to the downside,” the IMF further stated.
It observed that “the war in Ukraine could lead to a sudden stop of European gas imports from Russia; inflation could be harder to bring down than anticipated either if labour markets are tighter than expected or inflation expectations unanchor; tighter global financial conditions could induce debt distress in emerging market and developing economies; renewed COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns as well as a further escalation of the property sector crisis might further suppress Chinese growth; and geopolitical fragmentation could impede global trade and cooperation.
“A plausible alternative scenario in which risks materialise, inflation rises further and global growth declines to about 2.6 per cent and 2.0 per cent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, would put growth in the bottom 10 per cent of outcomes since 1970.”
With increasing prices continuing to squeeze standard of living worldwide, the IMF advised that taming inflation should be the priority for policy makers.
According to the IMF, tighter monetary policy would inevitably have real economic costs, but delay would only exacerbate them.
“Targeted fiscal support can help cushion the impact on the most vulnerable, but with government budgets stretched by the pandemic and the need for a disinflationary overall macroeconomic policy stance, such policies will need to be offset by increased taxes or lower government spending.
“Tighter monetary conditions will also affect financial stability, requiring judicious use of macro-prudential tools and making reforms to debt resolution frameworks all the more necessary,” the IMF noted.
Also, it advised that policies to address specific impacts on energy and food prices should focus on those most affected without distorting prices, and as the pandemic continues, vaccination rates must rise to guard against future variants.
The IMF averred that mitigating climate change continues to require urgent multilateral action to limit emissions and raise investments to hasten the green transition.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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