The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday predicted that Nigeria’s inflationary pressure will ease to 26% this year.
The Bretton Woods institution made the prediction during its presentation of global projections from its World Economic Outlook at a news conference in Washington DC.
Speaking during a press conference, Division Chief of the Research Department at IMF, Daniel Leigh, said that researches by the institution indicated that inflation would drop in Nigeria in tandem with global inflationary pressures estimated to decline from 2.8% at the end of 2024 to 2.4% at the end of 2025.
He expatiated: “Growth in Nigeria steady, but actually rising this year from 2.9 percent last year to 3.3 percent this year.
“We’ve seen expansion from the recovery in the oil sector with a better security situation, and also improved agriculture, benefiting from the better weather conditions and the introduction of dry season farming.
“So, there’s a broad-based increase also in the financial sector, in the IT sector. Inflation Yes, it has increased. Part of this reflects the reforms in the exchange rate. So this explains also why we revised our inflation projection for this year at 26%.
“But with the tight monetary policies and the significant interest rate increases during February and March, we see inflation declining to 23% next year and then 18% in 2026. So, in the right direction”, Leigh added.
The IMF also charged central banks to ensure that inflation would durably head back to target.
