‘World economic growth remains unchanged’

‘World economic growth remains unchanged’

The forecast for the world economy growth this year remains
unchanged, following “increased activity in the manufacturing sector” of some
developing countries, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) has said.

The OPEC, in its Oil Market Report, February 2011, said the
world economic growth in 2011 “remains unchanged at 3.9 per cent,” noting that
it had previously revised it up to 3.9 per cent in January from the 3.8 per
cent initial projection.

Consequently, the report said the United States economy “is now
expected to expand by 2.9 per cent and the Euro-zone raised to 1.4 per cent.
Growth for developing countries remain almost unchanged, with China growing at
8.8 per cent and India at 8.5 per cent in 2011.”

However, the report said, “despite increased activity in the
manufacturing sector, which has led to a broad-based improvement in global
sentiment, significant challenges remain.

“The extraordinary sovereign debt levels, rising inflation
rates, combined with the possibility of overheating in developing countries,
constitute concerns that might influence the 2011 growth trend.”

Nigerian economy

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s government said it is targeting economic
growth of 10 per cent in 2011 because its economy fared better last year than
those of most advanced economies of the world, with her Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) growing by 7.85 per cent, compared to a global average of 3.9 per cent.

Finance minister, Olusegun Aganga, last weekend, said,
“Nigeria’s GDP growth rate was higher than those of the high income nations,”
adding that details of the country’s macro-economic performance of the
different sectors of the economy showed that agriculture, wholesale and retail
trade, as well as manufacturing, accounted for some of the highest
contributions to the economy during the year.

However, Dimeji Akintayo, an analyst at Resource Cap, a business
advisory company, said the manufacturing sector “in the real terms has not
contributed enough to the Nigerian economy” despite “the human and natural
resources capacity that abound in the country.”

He said according to the data from the National Bureau of
Statistics, “our manufacturing sector only contributed less than eight per cent
last year when compared with the over 34 per cent in telecommunications sector.
If the government can focus on improving power generation, Nigeria as a nation
that consumes products from other countries will see its manufacturing industry
generating more jobs and increase the GDP.”

The Central Bank had last year initiated a N200 billion
manufacturing and power/aviation sector intervention loan fund in order to
rescue the moribund manufacturing sector of the economy.

The CBN said the funds, which would be disbursed through commercial banks,
are expected to be accessible this year.

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