Nigerian economy to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks in 2015,

Nigerian economy to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks in 2015 – report    

A report by a Nigerian company, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC) has said that despite recent measures adopted by the federal government to protect the economy from the adverse effects of the falling crude oil prices, the Nigerian macroeconomic environment will continue to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks in 2015.Nigeria’s Thisday newspaper report on Monday said that the report predicted that the naira would fall to N200 to a dollar at the parallel market.
It added that the report titled: “2015: Pain Before Gain”, noted that oil prices are still plunging even after losing over 50 percent last year (now about $56pb) and that the naira has remained volatile while interest rates are strangulating at 22 percent per annum.
“These are some of the issues that made the second half of 2014 a rough and tumble period as well as one of the most interesting years this decade for Nigeria.
“Against this background that shows that cyclical economic downturns and recovery are inescapable, our findings reveal that the Nigerian macroeconomic environment will continue to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks in 2015.
“This is mainly because oil prices and international capital flows will continue to be dominant features in the Nigerian macroeconomic equation,” it stated.
It, however, pointed out that the challenges are not Nigeria specific, citing the example of Venezuela that is in a recession after three consecutive quarters of negative growth and reported an inflation rate of 63 percent.
In the same vein, the Russian economy is reeling with the ruble down by 77.79 percent in 2014.