{"id":38385,"date":"2015-05-07T06:05:31","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T05:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=38385"},"modified":"2015-05-07T06:05:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T05:05:31","slug":"things-will-be-tough-till-the-end-of-2015-okonjo-iweala-advises-nigerians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/things-will-be-tough-till-the-end-of-2015-okonjo-iweala-advises-nigerians\/","title":{"rendered":"Things will be tough till the end of 2015, Okonjo-Iweala advises Nigerians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mailview-right\" class=\"offset uibox\">\n<div id=\"messagecontent\">\n<div class=\"leftcol\">\n<div id=\"messagebody\">\n<div class=\"message-htmlpart\">\n<div class=\"rcmBody\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised Nigerians not to expect any dramatic improvement in the next few months, as the country\u2019s economic challenges are far from being over.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAs you know, I have been honest with you since the current economic problems started. I would like to repeat: we have serious challenges, things have been tough since the beginning of the year and they are likely to remain so till the end of the year. We have serious challenges but we also have strengths and if we do the right things we can keep a steady course and emerge out of the current situation,\u201d Okonjo-Iweala said during yesterday\u2019s briefing in Abuja on the finalised 2015 Budget.<br \/>\nShe disclosed that \u201cas a result of the 50% decline in oil revenues, the country has faced a difficult cash crunch and the Federal Government has focused on keeping the economy stable and the government running through a series of measures.\u201d<br \/>\nOn the measures, the minister said: \u201cWe have front-loaded the borrowing programme to manage the cash crunch in the economy. Out of the N882 billon budgetary provision for borrowing, the government has borrowed N473 billion to meet up with recurrent expenditure, including salaries and overheads.\u201d<br \/>\nShe noted that \u201ctraditionally the first part of the year witnesses low revenue because tax receipts come in from the middle of the year,\u201d adding: \u201cThis has compounded the challenges caused by the steep drop in revenues due to the oil price fall.<br \/>\n\u201cAs a consequence of the revenue challenges, there has been no capital budget release so far this year.\u201d<br \/>\nThe minister however pointed out that \u201cin spite of this challenge, government has managed to keep the economy stable to the point that the Nigerian economy which is projected to grow by 4.8% this year is according to respected analysts is doing much better than many other oil producing countries.\u201d<br \/>\nOn the positive side, Okonjo-Iweala said: \u201cOne positive feature despite the clear challenges is the fact that food prices, though inching up are still quite stable. Also inflation is still in single digits. This has helped to reduce some of the pressure that Nigerians are going through<br \/>\n\u201cWe also have the advantage that we are an asset rich country and that is a definite strength.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is a challenging time and requires daily, weekly and monthly management to keep the country going and that\u2019s what we have been doing.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2022<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Source News Express<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"message\" class=\"statusbar\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised Nigerians not to expect any dramatic improvement in the next few months, as the country\u2019s&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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