• Urges review of agric interventions
• Recovery burdened with structural risks, Adedipe observes
Chairman, Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), Dr. Doyin Salami, yesterday, said the economy had started the journey to recovery, warning that households and external balances face “severe pressure.”
Salami, who spoke at the virtual seventh National Economic Outlook by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), noted that the “accelerating inflation and grim labour market conditions” put household sector under pressure despite the improvement in the gross domestic product (GDP) performance as shown by data of the third quarter of last year.
The headline inflation rate stood at 15.75 per cent in December, while the combined unemployment rate was 27.1 per cent as of mid-last year. The respected economist said the shocking figures have a negative implication on economic performance. He pointed out that the country’s “external imbalances are increasingly precarious with continuing concern over exchange rate differentials.”