afrol News, 3 February - Nigerian Minister of Finance Dr Mansur Muhtar said the country's economy is hanging on the balance with the depreciation of the currency against the United States dollar, poor power supply and the drop in the capitalisation of the stock exchange.

He also mentioned the Niger Delta crisis which has paralysed the country's oil production as some of the factors seriously affecting the Nigerian economy, which has brought down more than two thirds of the oil output.

Dr Muhtar said although the country had managed to wrestle out of the immediate effects of the current global financial crisis, it might not continue to be so lucky as the impact spreads.

"While we were able to weather the first round effects of the global crisis, subsequent deterioration in the global economic and financial environment has exposed our country to considerable shocks," he said.

He said Nigeria needed to move speedily to reposition its economy to adequately respond to the accompanying global slowdown in a more comprehensive and holistic fashion.

He also said the restoration of investors' confidence through continuous education on the market dynamics was a must, as he listed priority areas of focus which include "achieving macroeconomic and financial stability to restore confidence; improving public expenditure and revenue management as well as financial governance structure and supporting real sector growth to boost employment".

The finance minister also recalled that it was in realisation of the danger that the nation's economy was faced with that the president endorsed a new framework for national economic management so as to strengthen the administration's capability for responding to the current global financial crisis and economic meltdown.

Nigerian has just launched National Economic Management Team in Abuja which is expected to provide the Presidential Steering Committee on Global Economic Crisis and the Federal Government with detailed analysis and advice on the design and execution of economic strategies, policies and programmes.

The members of the team include the ministers of National Planning, Power, Petroleum and various other senior finance officials.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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