We spent our way out of recession — Finance minister

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said the federal government spent its way out of recession.

She also indicated that the federal government intends to spend more.

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“Nigeria needs to spend and spend now more on infrastructure and other capital projects.

“Recent evidence of the benefit of spending is the fourth-quarter GDP growth rate of the economy which was 0.11% resulting in Nigeria pulling out of recession after two-quarters of negative growth.

“This annual growth rate that was initially projected at -3.2% closed the year at -1.92% which is an improvement over most of the countries within our comparative groups,” she said.

The Minister stated this Thursday at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s yearly Budget Seminar with the theme “Financing Nigeria’s Budget and Infrastructure Deficits through the Capital Market” held virtually.

She also said the FG has to still borrow more in spite of experts call for caution on borrowing following Nigeria’s poor revenue to debt position.

“This need is further underscored by the current global pandemic with its attendant negative effects on our daily economic and social activities.

“In order to provide the necessary infrastructure and still continue to meet other immediate expenditure needs, the government often adopts deficit budgets which have to be financed through borrowing” she said.