12042019 - I N S E C U R I T Y: Buhari launches offensive; orders ruthless action

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20 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019
Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019 — 21 Why we want fuel subsidy removed — IMF ...demands transparency in China loans By Emeka Anaeto & Emma Ujah Washington DC The Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, IMF, Christine Lagarde, has justified the call for the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria and other countries, saying that it was a distortion through which over $ 5.2 trillion public funds has been lost globally, since 2015. Lagarde said this yesterday at the on-going IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC, USA. Her words: “As a general principle, we believe that removal of fossil fuel subsidies is the right way to go. If you look at our numbers since 2015, it is not less than $5.2 trillion that were spent on fuel subsidies and the consequences there of. “The Fiscal Affairs Department actually identified how much would have been saved fiscally but also in terms of human life, if there had been the right price on carbon emission as of 2015, the numbers are quite staggering. If that was to happen, then there would be more public spending available to build hospitals, to build roads, to build schools, and to support education and health for the people. “Now, how this is done is the more complicated path because there has to be a social protection safety net that is in place so that the most exposed in the population do not take the brunt of those removal of subsidies. That is the position we take. “I would add as a footnote, as far as Nigeria is concerned that with the low revenue mobilisation that exists in the country in terms of tax to GDP, Nigeria is amongst the lowest. A real effort has to be done in order to maintain a good public finance situation for the country and in order to direct investment towards health, education and infrastructure.” Demands transparency in China loans Responding to concerns about the growing debt profile of African countries, she said that the Fund would work with other multilateral organisations with a view to ensuring more transparency in terms of loans that China has been advancing to countries of the region. She said: “On the debt issues, both IMF and the World Bank are working together in order to bring about more transparency and be better able Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director to identify debts out there. Terms and conditions, volumes and maturity, this is an endeavour that we will pursue David Malpass, World Bank President together and which the G20 has actually asked us to develop. So we are doing that now.” Lagarde added that the Fund was working to encourage both lenders and borrowers of such loans to be transparent and ensure that the terms of the loans complied with international best practices. “We are constantly encouraging both borrowers and lenders to align as much as possible with the debt principles that have been approved by the G20 and that we have endorsed internally and developed ourselves.“It is clear that any debt restructuring programmes going forward in the years to come will be more ...ranks Nigeria among bottom 3 in real GDP growth projection •Ghana, Ethiopia, Cote d’ Ivoire lead By Emeka Anaeto & Peter Egwuatu Nigeria has been ranked among the three least performing economies in the sub- Saharan Africa in terms of the real Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth projection for the year 2019, the latest International Monetary Fund, IMF World Economic Outlook Report released at the ongoing World Bank /IMF 2019 Spring Meeting has indicated. A total of 18 economies in the region were rated by the report. Vanguard’s findings from the report show that Ghana has been projected to have the highest real GDP growth rate of 8.8 percent among the Sub Saharan countries in the year 2019, followed by Ethiopia with 7.7 percent and Cote d’ Ivoire 7.4 percent occupying third position. The three least performers are Nigeria projected to grow by 2.1 percent, followed by South Africa with 1.2 percent and the least being Angola at 0.4 percent. The entire Sub Saharan African countries have been projected to have a real GDP growth of 3.5 percent in 2019 from 3.0 percent in 2018. Vanguard’s findings also showed that Nigeria’s rank is the second least among the oil exporters in the region, with the group of five economies led by Republic of Congo projected to grow by 5.4 percent, Chad by 4.5 percent and Gabon by 3.1 percent. Commenting, Chief Economist & Director of Research, IMF, Gita Gopinath, stated that growth prospects vary across Sub Saharan Africa, reflecting the heterogeneity of the economies, associated with disparities in the level of development, exposure to weather shocks, and commodity dependence. The current forecast envisages that global growth will level off in the first half of 2019 and firm up after that According to him, for the region as a whole, growth is projected to increase from 3.7 percent in 2020 to about 4 percent in 2024(although for close to two-fifths of economies, the average growth rate over the medium term is projected to exceed 5 percent). “Growth prospects for commodity exporters are weighed down by the soft outlook for commodity By Peter Egwuatu The World Bank yesterday said that poverty is going worsen in the developing countries as the per capita income growth projected for the prices, including for Nigeria and Angola, where growth is expected to reach about 2.6 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, in the medium term. In South Africa, Growth is projected to stabilize at one three quarter percent over the medium term as structural bottlenecks continue to weigh on investment and productivity and metal export prices are expected to remain subdued” he noted. He further narrated that after strong growth in 2017 and early 2018, global economic activity slowed notably in the second half of last year, reflecting a confluence of factors affecting major economies. Gopinath added that global growth is set to moderate in the near term, and then pick up modestly. He said: “As a result of these developments, global growth is now projected to slow from 3.6 percent in 2018 to 3.3 percent in 2019 before returning to 3.6 percent in 2020. Growth for 2018 was revised down by 0.1 percentage point relative to the October 2018 World Economic Outlook, reflecting weakness in the second half of the year, and the forecasts for 2019 and 2020 are now marked down by 0.4 percentage point and 0.1 point respectively. The current forecast envisages that global growth will level off in the first half of 2019 and firm up after that.” complicated than debt restructuring programmes that were conducted 10 years ago simply because of the multiplicity of lenders and the fact that not all public debt is offered by members of the Paris Club.” Lagarde said that IMF was working to ensure a more equitable and fair international trade deals among nations of the world, with a view to eliminating a situation where some nations have been taking the benefits to the detriment of others. World Bank projects below 1% per capita income growth for Sub Saharan Africa Sub Saharan Africa including Nigeria, is now to stay below one percent until 2021. The World Bank President, David Malpass, disclosed this at a press briefing during the ongoing World Bank/IMF 2019 Spring Meeting in Washington DC, USA. He said:” Per capita income growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a whole, is now projected to stay below 1 percent until at least 2021, which elevates the risk of a further concentration of extreme poverty on the continent. Growth in median countries will also be weak.” Explaining the global economic situation, he said: “This fact is extremely troubling, because it jeopardizes the World Bank’s primary goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.” According to him, on a global scale, extreme poverty has dropped to 700 million at the last count, that’s down from much higher levels in the 1990s and 2000s. But he added that the number of people living in extreme poverty is on the rise in Sub- Saharan Africa. He stressed that the situation calls for urgent <strong>action</strong> by countries themselves, and by the global community. However, he stated: “The World Bank Group is financially strong. And with the capital package which was agreed to a year ago at the Spring Meetings, and which I was proud to support – the organization is becoming even more responsive, efficient, and effective. This week we at the World Bank Group have joined the IMF in welcoming our 189 shareholders to the Spring Meetings. I have already begun meeting with member countries and other stakeholders to discuss the challenges ahead, and to advance the broader global development agenda.” Malpass, noted that the World Bank Group plays an increasingly vital role in leading on global challenges that people face in developing countries.
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12042019 - I N S E C U R I T Y: Buhari launches offensive; orders ruthless action

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