Nigeria to Come Out Of Recession By Third Quarter – CBN

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele says the efforts of the apex bank and that of the federal government will pull Nigeria out of recession by third quarter of 2017.

He says the signs that the economy is recovering can be seen in the downward trend in prices of commodities, indicating a reduction in the rate of inflation.

The CBN governor stated this on Tuesday in a chat with newsmen after a closed-door meeting with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Rafiu Ibrahim.

The CBN governor has been intervening in the interbank market by injecting dollars into it to boost the value of the naira.

Emefiele said the apex bank would continue with its intervention in the foreign exchange market, adding that efforts by it so far had been yielding positive results.

”We are very much optimistic that by the end of the second quarter, or latest the third quarter, we should be out of recession that we are in right now,” he said.

”The central bank has been involved in some form of intensive intervention in the foreign exchange market and this has fortunately resulted in a downward trend in the parallel market price of foreign exchange, from as high as N525 to a dollar to as low as N370,” he said.