Nigeria’s debt to pass 44.7% of GDP in 5yrs — IMF

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Nigeria’s total public debt will rise steadily to 44.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, GDP, by 2027. 

  IMF gave this forecast in its April Fiscal Monitor, released yesterday, in Washington, adding that the total fiscal spending of the General Government (Federal and state governments) will widen to 6.4 per cent of GDP this year, 2022, from 6.0  per cent at the end of 2021. 

  The projection is coming few days after Debt Management Office (DMO) said national public debt rose by 20 per cent, year-on-year, YoY, to N39.56 trillion in 2021 from N32.92 trillion in 2020.

  But IMF disagreed with DMO, stating that  nation’s Debt-to-GDP ratio stood at  37.0 per cent at the end of 2021, and will rise to  37.4  per cent in 2022, 38.8 per cent in 2023,  40.2 per cent in 2024,  41.6 per cent in 2025,  42.9 per cent in 2026 and to  44.2 per cent in 2027. 

  Similarly, IMF has warned that the global community faced a general debt spike, food shortage-related unrests and energy crisis.

  The release of the April 2022 Fiscal Monitor, with the theme,  “Fiscal Policy from Pandemic to War” was part of the on-going Spring Meetings of the World Bank / IMF Spring Meetings.

  The report said of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “Besides the death toll, human misery, and destruction of infrastructure, the war is causing costly displacement of refugees and loss of human capital, disrupting commodity markets, and further fueling inflation. Higher food and energy prices raise the risks of social unrest.