IMF urges CBN to sustain anti-inflation campaign ahead of Tinubu’s presidency, makes prediction

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue its anti-inflation campaign ahead of the expected presidency of Bola Tinubu from May 29th, 2023.

The IMF Director of the Research Department, Pierre-Oliver Gourinchas gave the advice while releasing the World Economic Outlook report at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring meetings in Washington DC, Dailytrust reports.

In the outlook report titled ‘A Rocky Recovery,’ IMF predicted that Nigeria's economy will grow at 3.2 %.

The global institution however noted that the growth will fall to 3.0 percent in 2024 when the new administration kick-off fully, Punch added.

Speaking on Nigeria, Division Chief, Research Department, Daniel Leigh said: “Our projections for Nigeria show a relatively stable forecast for this year. There is a slight increase, with a revision upward to 3.3% in 2022, and a similar projection of 3.2% for 2023, followed by a 3% projection for 2024.

"So, this is an economy with very high inflation as well and this is why we have a forecast of about 20 per cent for 2023.

Regarding CBN's efforts to address inflation, the IMF has advised the CBN to continue increasing interest rates as Nigeria's inflation rate remains at one of its highest levels in history, reaching 21.91% in February 2023, despite the hike in the Central Bank's Monetary Policy interest rate from 16.5% to 18% in March 2023.

The IMF believes that increasing the interest rate further will help bring down inflation Leigh said: “One of our main recommendations is to tighten the monetary policy to ensure that this inflation comes down towards the more target levels.”