The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth in 2024 to 3.1 percent, citing weaker growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.
This revised forecast was included in the July 2024 World Economic Outlook released on Tuesday.
The new forecast represents a 0.2 percentage point reduction from the IMF’s previous forecast of 3.3 percent.
The downgrade follows weaker-than-expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded in Q1’24. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s GDP growth declined quarter-on-quarter to 2.98 percent in Q1’24 from 3.46 percent in Q4’23.
Despite the downgrade for 2024, the IMF has retained its forecast of 3.0 percent economic growth for Nigeria in 2025.
As a consequence of the lower forecast for Nigeria, the IMF also revised its forecast for Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth in 2024, reducing it to 3.7 percent from the April forecast of 3.8 percent.
However, it raised the economic growth forecast for the region in 2025 to 4.1 percent from 4.0 percent.
“The forecast for growth in sub-Saharan Africa is revised downward, mainly as a result of a 0.2 percentage point downward revision to the growth outlook in Nigeria amid weaker-than-expected activity in the first quarter of this year,” the IMF stated.