BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
THE Central Bank of Nigeria, on Tuesday, warned that the economy was still in a fragile state despite its exit from recession.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emfiele, gave the warning while addressing journalists at the end of a two-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
Despite the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s economy fully recovered from recession, as Gross Domestic Product rose by 0.51 per cent in the first quarter of 2021.
The National Bureau of Statistics had revealed the development on Sunday in its GDP report for the first quarter 2021.
“The Q1 2021 growth rate was slower than the 1.87 per cent growth rate recorded in Q1 2020 but higher than 0.11 per cent recorded in Q4 2020,” the NBS had said.
The Nigerian economy had grown 0.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, from the 6.11 per cent contraction in the third quarter.
Speaking on the GDP figures, Emefiele said that the growth posted by the economy was still fragile as it was far below Nigeria’s population growth rate.
Emefiele said the MPC called on both the fiscal and monetary authorities to implement measures aimed at supporting the economic recovery.
He also said there was a need to address the insecurity in the country to enable farmers boost agric production
He said the measures to be taken by government should include attraction of investments, boosting manufacturing and agric productivity and supporting the local production of food as well as addressing infrastructural deficits.
On the key monetary policy parameters, the Governor said the committee retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 per cent while the Cash Reserves Ratio and Liquidity Ratio were left unchanged at 37.5 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
