Economy
Global Growth Slows to 2% in 2023 – World Bank
The World Bank Group President, David Malpass says global growth is expected to be weak in 2023, slowing to two per cent from 3.1 per cent in 2022.
Malpass said this in his Opening address at the ongoing Spring Meetings 2023 Media Call, a copy of which was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.
He said several factors were weighing on the second-half outlook.
“Oil prices have jumped back above 80 dollars/barrel.
The recent banking sector stress dampens activities and inflation pressures persist.Malpass said the U.S. month-over-month core inflation had been rising over the last five months, saying there would be new data on Wednesday.
“If we look at developing countries excluding China, we expect a slowdown to about 3.1 per cent in 2023 from 4.1 per cent in 2022.
“The concern in our recent reports is that slow growth will persist for years for many developing countries, increasing the fiscal stress and debt problems.
“It is a combination of weak investment, higher interest rates, and relatively weak growth in the advanced economies.’’
He said the danger was acute due to inflation, currency depreciation, rising debt service costs, and the collapse of international reserves.
Malpass said the diversion of natural gas to Europe presented grave obstacles to developing country production of electricity, fertilizer, and food.
“These problems are severely constraining future growth and deepening inequality and fragility for developing countries.
“I travelled to West Africa in March, where we are working to provide support in the face of these problems.
“Looking at the big picture, I will mention two problems, first, the normalisation of interest rates after an artificial decade near zero.
He said this created problems in terms of the duration mismatch seen in the bank failures, liquidity shortages, and how to allocate the losses.
“The duration mismatch will take time to digest. With inflation persistent and the dollar weakening, the risk is that the losses will be allocated to those with lower incomes, including through inflation.’’
Malpass said the second major problem was that the available global capital was being absorbed by a narrow group of advanced economies that have extremely high government debt levels.
“I will call them sinkholes. To make matters worse, their populations are ageing rapidly and the peace dividend of the 1990s was used up.’’
He said he had advocated a range of new policies that would spur production to combat inflation and currency weakness.
“However, the likelihood is a long period of slow growth, asset reprising, and capital moving in the wrong direction.
“Moving toward a narrow group of governments and big corporations rather than to the small businesses and working capital that could add to global growth.’’
Malpass said two exceptions to the slowdown included China and India.
According to him, China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is rebounding to more than five per cent in 2023, with strong private investment.
“I note the stability of China’s currency and the countercyclical nature of its monetary policy. I was in China in December as they ended the lockdown.
“The government is encouraging growth in services, especially healthcare and tourism.’’
Malpass said India continued to be one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.
“We are looking for growth of 6.3 per cent in their FY23/24. They will feel some effects from the global slowdown.
“I was there in February and think it will take capital market liberalisation for India to achieve their eight per cent growth goal.’’
NAN reports that the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund 2023 Spring Meetings opened on Monday in Washington DCand would end on April 16. (NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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