BREAKING NEWS, Business
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THE federal government recorded a deficit of N725.18 billion in its fiscal operations in the first quarter of 2016, according to data released, on Monday, June 13, by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The CBN, in its Economic Report for the First Quarter of 2016, attributed the deficit to an expenditure of N1.23 trillion, over retained earnings of N505.1 billion in the period under review. The deficit, the report said, was as a result of a decline in oil and non-oil revenues and a rise in capital expenditure in the quarter under review.
The dip in oil earnings was attributed to a sharp drop in oil and gas export, low price of crude oil in the international market and the persistent disruption in petroleum export due to vandalisation and production shut-ins. According to the report, the estimated fiscal deficit of N725.18 billion indicated an increase of 178.6 per cent above the 2015 provisional quarterly budget deficit of N260.25 billion.
The CBN also stated that the Federal Government’s expenditure for the first quarter was 3.4 per cent higher than the provisional quarterly budget estimate, but was below level in the fourth quarter of 2015 by 20.3 per cent. Specifically, breakdown of total expenditure showed that recurrent expenditure accounted for 72.8 per cent of the total, while capital and statutory transfers accounted for 18 and 9.2 per cent, respectively. – Vanguard
— Jun 13, 2016 @ 18:40 GMT
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