Nigeria Content Online

The global economic
growth during the first half of the year exceeded expectations, thus
necessitating a marginal upward review of the remaining half of the
year, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has
said.

OPEC, in its Oil
Market Report, August 2010, stated that the recovery was led by “a
strong pick up in both manufacturing and international trade,” adding
that “recovery in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries, in contrast, was more modest and relied
primarily on continued monetary and fiscal support, creating the
appearance of a two-speed world.”

The report said the
world gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2010 is estimated at 3.9
percent, marginally above July’s 3.8 percent. The 2011 forecast remains
unchanged at 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Mansur
Ahmed, director general of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission (ICRC), last weekend, said in spite of problems and poor
infrastructure in Nigeria, the country’s economy has grown considerably.

Mr. Ahmed said the
nation’s GDP at 7 percent was a positive indicator to growth. “I think
it is fair to say that the Nigerian economy, in spite of all its
problems and hurdles of poor infrastructure and so on, has still
continued to grow positively. The growth of the economy measured by GDP
in this quarter and for the rest of this year is in the region of 7
percent,” he said, adding that the figure is high compared to the
average growth of the most successful economies.

However, an analyst
said that the full reliance of the nation’s economy on oil revenue will
do Nigerians no good. Oladimeji Akintayo of Resource Cap Limited, an
investment advisory firm, said a country’s economy should be built
across different sectors.

“In developed
countries, revenues are generated from the processing of different
commodities into finished products. By this, jobs will be created
through manufacturing industries, distribution and marketing companies.
Government can also get revenues from taxes because a larger part of
the citizens are gainfully employed,” Mr. Akintayo said.

Forecast

Despite the
better-than-expected economic performance, OPEC said recovery in oil
demand in the first half of the year remained relatively modest.

“Global oil demand
rose by 0.7 millions of barrels per day (mb/d) and 1.3 mb/d during the
first and second quarter, respectively, but from the extremely low base
of the previous year. Looking to the second half, the pace of economic
growth is projected to slow, not only in OECD, but also across most
emerging and developing markets, indicating that oil demand growth will
remain moderate,” it further said.

The report said
global economic recovery is projected to continue through the whole of
2011, with an even distribution between the first and second half of
the year. The bulk of the recovery in oil demand is expected to occur
at approximately the same pace throughout the entire year. As in 2010,
next year’s oil demand growth is expected to take place in the
non-OECD, mainly China, India, the Middle East, and Latin America.