Clement Agba: FG is making steady progress with economy

Clement Agba, minister of state for budget and national planning, says the federal government is committed to improving the economy.

Agba said this on Wednesday at the end of the federal executive council (FEC) meeting.

Addressing state house correspondents, the minister explained that the economy is making a lot of progress given its consistently good performance in recent times.

“First, you say the figures that were given show that there is a positive trajectory in terms of the economy. I think first, we need to understand what GDP itself means. It’s the totality of the value of goods and services, it’s an indication of what is happening in the economy when you are having more to spend, more transactions are going on,” the minister said.

“It means the economy is growing, and if it is declining, and you have such negative decline in two quarters, then we will say you are in a recession. And NBS has consistently given these figures, whether they are positive, or they are negative, and then we compare them either on a month on month basis, or year on year basis.

“And then we also have what those figures are annual, which tend to show us or indicate whether we are making progress or not. What those numbers show is that there’s steady progress that is being made.

The minister said reviving the economy is a continuous process.

“Whether it is far-reaching enough is a different ball game. And that’s why you see in the National Development Plan 2021 to 2025, we are looking for a growth rate of an average of 5 percent.

“We haven’t gotten there yet, but it is beginning to move towards that trajectory. In terms of inflation, for about 17 months consecutively, you find that the inflation rate was going up, but what we are beginning to see is that for eight consecutive months, there is consistency in decline, both for headline and inflation.

“But in December, we noticed that there was a slight increase. Of course, you know what normally would happen at the end of the year when everybody’s chasing the few available goods. So the demand, of course, is much, much higher than supply.

“But the good news is that in January, there was also a decline. And we noticed that the food index increases were around the price of bread and cereal. And then, food products were classified as potatoes, yam and other tubers, soft drinks, oil fats and fruit.

“So, the economy is being worked on, is a work in progress, I can’t give you a definitive date when inflation is going to be below 10 percent. But the fact that we say that there is inflation means that the prices are being worked on.”