Skip to main content

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, North Korea worries

Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain...

5.5 Billion Dollar Foreign Loan: Your Debt Profile Is Rising - IMF Warns Nigeria .

The International Monetary Fund has warned the Nigerian federal government about its rising debt profile, just as President Buhari seeks approval from NASS to borrow $5.5 billion to fund the budget

- Tobias Adrian, a director at the financial institution, stated that if Nigeria does not put the resources gotten from increased borrowing to good use, it would pose serious challenges for the nation

- However, Catherine Pattillo, an assistant director at the IMF admitted that Nigeria has undertaken lots of positive reforms; but stated that the government must do more especially in terms of mobilizing non-oil revenue

The federal government has been warned about its rising debt profile, especially foreign loans, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Nation reports.

The financial institution issued the warning on Wednesday, October 11.

This comes following President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent request to the National Assembly for approval to borrow $5.5 billion to fund the 2017 budget.



NAIJ.com gathers that Tobias Adrian, IMF director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, lamented over the fact that the external borrowing of low income countries including Nigeria, keeps rising.

He stressed that if the resources gotten from such borrowing are not put to good use, it would become a serious challenge.

According to data from the Debt Management Office, Nigeria’s public debt as at June 2017 stood at $64.19 billion (N19.63 trillion).

However, Catherine Pattillo, IMF assistant director, Fiscal Affairs Department, admitted that Nigeria has undertaken lots of positive reforms such as improving infrastructure especially in the power sector.

Despite this though, she urged the federal government to do more especially in mobilizing more non-oil revenues.

She stated: “The concern in a number of oil exporters is that unless there is action now, debt which has been rising is a concern because of the interest payments.

“So, if you have continuing rise in debt, the interest payments would consume a large part of any revenue that you collect and you won’t be able to use that revenue for the objectives of the economic growth and recovery programme like increasing growth and employment.

“So for insuring that you have the ability to use those revenues for enhancing expenditure, there is a need to make sure that interest to revenue is kept at reasonable level.”



Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a recent report concluded that the total foreign debt profile of the federal and the 36 states governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), showed a continuous rise since the coming of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Under the current government, Nigeria’s foreign debt profile rose from $10.718 billion in 2015, to $11.406 billion in 2016 and $15.047 billion in 2017

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, North Korea worries

Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain...

APDA, PDP, commend INEC for “timely” release of 2019 elections’ timetable.

The Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) and the Peoples Democratic Party have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “for early release of timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections.” The political parties gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday. The APDA National Publicity Secretary, Mr Tosin Adeyanju, described the timetable and schedule of activities as a welcome development for political parties. Adeyanju said that the early release of the timetable would enable political parties to have enough time to prepare for the elections. He added that it had also cleared all rumours and speculations, especially date of primaries and other pre-election activities for political parties. He noted that “we in APDA believe that the timetable would afford political parties the opportunity and enough time to adequately prepare and plan for the elections. “This ...

Hoodlums vandalise APC secretariat in Rivers, one person dies.

One person died in Port- Harcourt on Friday as unidentified persons, suspected to be political thugs vandalised the Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) located at the Old Government Residential Area in Port Harcourt, Rivers. The Rivers Command of the Nigerian Police quickly intervened by deploying tear-gas to stop further destruction of the party’s secretariat. Gun shots were fired into the air to scare riotous members and in the process one death was recorded. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that APC members aspiring for various positions at the Ward levels had come to the party secretariat to pick their forms before the incident. A Ward Chairmanship aspirant told NAN that he was unable to pick the form after paying the required amount through the bank. He said that trouble occurred after a long wait by the aspirants. Read More:  Ward congress: Lagos CP reads riot act to APC members “As you can see, most of us that are vying f...