Economic and financial experts have warned that Nigeria could face serious economic consequences if the global economy contracts into a recession, as predicted by the World Bank.
The President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, told a United States business event on Wednesday that it was difficult to “see how we avoid a recession.”
His comments are the latest warning over the rising risk that the world economy may be set to contract with the protraction of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“As we look at the global GDP… it’s hard right now to see how we avoid a recession,” Malpass said.
“The idea of energy prices doubling is enough to trigger a recession by itself,” he added.
Last month, the World Bank cut its global economic growth forecast for this year by almost a full percentage point, to 3.2 per cent.
Developing countries are also being affected by shortages of fertiliser, food and energy, Mr Malpass said.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, said a global recession would have a catastrophic effect on Nigeria’s economy.
Yusuf said Nigeria was already dealing with challenging economic problems which would be further compounded by a contraction of the global economy.
He said, “The impact of a global recession will obviously be very adverse. That means that the challenges that we are facing currently will get even worse because already, we are dealing with a lot of issues around inflation. We are dealing with a lot of problems around foreign exchange and macroeconomic issues generally, which are things that are driven by external factors.
“So, if you have a global recession then we may see some effects on some of these things that may make those variables much more difficult. We have so many issues which are internal to us. So when you combine those internal issues with these external variables or factors, you can imagine the impact it will have not just on the economy but on the lives of the citizens, on investments and so many other things. It’s not going to be palatable at all.”
