Nigerians will experience more pain before Q1 2024 – Rewane

Nigerians will experience more pain before Q1 2024 – Rewane

Renowned economist Bismarck Rewane says Nigerians will have to endure “more pain” before next year following the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of foreign exchange rates.
He however expressed optimism that Nigeria’s economy should experience growth in the first quarter of 2024.
Rewane, who is chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives, spoke as a guest on Arise News on Saturday.
“The bad news is that there is pain and they will be more pain in the short run. But the good news is that there will be gains in the first quarter of 2024,” he said.
“I used to think that you will get that sooner, but you will need to have your supplementary budget and recycle money into the system.”
President Bola Tinubu in his inaugural speech on May 29 announced the removal of petrol subsidy.
This immediately resulted in a hike in the pump price of petrol.
The price last week surged to N617 per litre in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and environs, whilst it moved to N568 a litre in Lagos.
Commenting on the exchange rate, Rewane said, “What system is being used to keep your exchange rate from being misaligned fundamentally, I think that’s the key issue.
“The exchange rate is misaligned because there are certain things that are being done that affect it. For example, you are holding some variables constants while allowing some variables to change.
“In reality, no variable should be constant. Any economist who says a variable is in constant is practising partial equilibrium analysis and it doesn’t work.”