The Federal Government has declared that it has a long way to go in terms of fixing the economy.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said this on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister admitted that this was the worst possible time for the country and said the federal government was not deceiving itself that things were rosy.
She, however, noted that while the times were confusing, the Federal Government was not confused about how to get the nation out of the woods.
The minister, who maintained that the government was extremely focused, said if Nigerians could bear and get through this difficult time, the country would be better for it.
She said the Nigerian economy could not grow if the country continues to rely on oil whose price and production remain low, stressing the need to grow non-oil sectors.
“We have to invest in capital projects. No, we are not confused, the times are confusing but we are not confused. We are extremely focused. We know that if we can get through this difficult period, Nigeria is going to be better for it. If we rely on oil and the price of oil remains low and the quantity of oil remains low, we can’t grow. We have to grow our non-oil economy.
“I think that we have a long way to go. We’re not confused and we’re not deceiving ourselves that everything is rosy. It’s not. It’s a difficult time for Nigeria, but I think Nigeria is in the right hands, and if we can stick to our strategy, we still have some adjustments to make. I think we need to make some adjustments in monetary policy. It’s quite clear we will do that. We’re working on that. We need to try and find a way to support the manufacturing sector better and we will do that
“What we have is cost-push inflation and when you have cost-push inflation, it is structural inflation. It is not going to respond to monetary policy tools such as increasing the rate of interest. We have to address the structural causes of the inflation.The trend, the rate of inflation growth, has slowed down and that’s a good sign.”
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Credit: All Africa