The Director of Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ahmed Abdullahi on Thursday said that the economy would record tremendous improvement by the third quarter of the year.
Abdullahi told newsmen after the 333rd Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos, that an indication of this was the stability of foreign exchange rate as there was convergence between the official and parallel markets.
He also observed that investors’ confidence in the economy was gradually building up as was indicated in downward trend in the inflation rate and the positive development recorded at the capital market.
He said: “The Bankers Committee noted with delight the improvement in the economy in recent times. Although the economy is still in the negative but the size of the negative growth has reduced.
“It is almost obvious that by the end of the end of the third quarter, there will be positive growth and there are a number of indices that are pointing toward that.
“Inflation is trending downwards. It is about 16.25 per cent from18 per cent that it was.
“The exchange rate has largely stabilised, we are seeing convergence at both the nafex and Importer and Exporter window as well as the Bureau De Changes’ rate.”
The director added that confidence was increasingly building in the economy, saying that it was due to improvement in oil production and oil price.
“The economy will remain robust now that there is upward growth in most of the sectors of the economy.
“The nafex window in the last six weeks over two billion dollars has been reregistered as inflow and that has helped in satbilising the market.
“With other windows, we have seen activities that have helped in building confidence in the market generally”, he said.