FG borrows N882bn to finance 2015 budget

FG borrows N882bn to finance 2015 budget

Nigeria’s economic crisis continues to become worse with the Federal
Government borrowing N882.12bn so far to finance the 2015 budget
deficit.
The amount, sourced internally, included what was budgeted for
internal and external borrowing for the fiscal year.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia
Daniel-Nwaobia, said this in her presentation to the House of
Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Non-Implementation of Capital
Projects in the 2015 appropriation in Abuja on Tuesday.
The national economic crisis and the attendant depreciation of the
Naira, increase in interest rates and inflation, may not end soon with
the figures from the National Bureau of Statistics indicating that the
Gross Domestic Product earlier projected to grow at a rate of 5.5 per
cent (as of January 2015) now stands at 2.63 per cent as of June
2015 .
This, the Permanent Secretary, who was represented by the Director
General, Budget Office of the Federation, Alhaji Aliyu Yahaya Gusau,
said, “is not unconnected with the global slowdown and its attendant
impact.”
“The economy is not expected to outperform global growth rate of 3.3
per cent. Significant drop in oil price has led to exchange rate
depreciation, pushing the dollar to N197 as of June 2015. This has led
to the adoption of stringent measures in fiscal and monetary policies
to ensure stability in the economy,” she explained.
On debt management, she said, “Public debt to GDP ratio as of 2013
was 10.82 per cent, and that the total amount of N882.12bn
appropriated for both domestic and external borrowing has been fully
raised to finance the 2015 budget accordingly.
“Debt service to revenue ratio however needs to be kept under close
watch. Given that it was 19.63 per cent by the end of June 2015
against the cognate arbitrary threshold of 28 per cent.
“External debt as of June 30, 2015 stood at $7.74bn and $3.42bn for
states and the FCT; bringing it to the total amount of $8.31bn.”