Thursday, December 19, 2024 - A political analyst, Basil Abia, has said that the projections of the 2025 budget proposal presented by President Bola Tinubu at the National Assembly are unrealistic.
President Tinubu, in his presentation to a joint session of the National
Assembly on Wednesday, said the budget aims to
bring down inflation from its current 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today a few hours after
Tinubu’s budget presentation, Abia said that it was impossible to reduce
inflation to 15 per cent next year when crude oil production is below two
million barrels per day.
“The projections are not realistic and the most important thing I think
Nigerians should understand is what are the assumptions driving those
projections.
“Now, if you say you want to do 15 per cent headline inflation rate on
aggregate for 2025, the core drivers, you have to be able to show us that you
are going to realistically drop down those drivers, reduce their efficacy, and
their frequency.
“Unfortunately, you cannot have a 15 per cent headline inflation rate
when you are producing less than two million barrels per day.
“Now, I know they are projecting two million barrels per day, but it is
impossible to do when you are currently producing 1.5 million barrels per day,”
Abia said.
According to the President, the exchange rate will improve from
approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500.
Highlights of the N49.7 trillion budget showed that N4.91tn goes into
defence and security; N4.06tn will be injected into health, while N2.4tn goes
into education.
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