Yesterday the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), announced that the economy is out of recession. Many Nigerians welcomed the news but also added that the effect of exiting the recession has not yet been felt by the common man as cost of living is very high. President Buhari in his reaction to the news, also said that until coming out of recession translates into meaningful improvement in people's lives, the work by the government cannot be said to be done.
At a press conference in Abuja today, the Statistician-General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, said that the effect of Nigeria coming out of recession will not be felt immediately by Nigerians.
“There is a different stage Nigeria must go through before the masses will feel the effects of going out of recession. Out of recession is the first step which is very important then the country can talk of economic recovery which is going back to where Nigeria was before the recession. Recession is just a technical word; we are comparing 2017 and 2016. Recession is not about the price of your goods, not whether unemployment is going up or down, not whether you have quality education; it’s purely your gross domestic product. Your outputs of goods and services in the economy are going down and the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is an accumulation of 46 different economic activities in Nigeria and the overall number. Whether positive or negative will determine whether you are in recession or out of recession. Now, within those 46 activities, some sectors will do very well and will be positive, some will do badly, some will do worse and some will stay the same way they are.’’ he said
Kale refuted claims in some quarters that the announcement of the economy exiting recession was politically motivated.
“It is not political because it is the same bureau that gave other negative data. Things have improved but we are not there yet, it is only food prices that are still high.’’ he said