How govt plans to avert economic recession, by Presidency

Budget Office releases State House expenditure details

The Presidency yesterday said that the Federal Government is already taking steps to prevent a second negative growth in the coming quarter of the year.

This follows 2016 negative growth of 0.36% in the first quarter of the year as stated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Speaking exclusively with The Guardian yesterday in Abuja, Special Adviser to the President on Planning, Ben Akabueze said that government was working hard to stimulate the economy and prevent a second negative growth of the Gross Domestic Product in the year 2016.

He stated that although Nigeria was yet to enter into economic recession proper, government nevertheless has began processes to stimulate the economy, as according to him, the technical definition of economic recession is if an economy records two consecutive months of negative growth.

Meanwhile, the Budget Office has released the details of the line items expenditure for the 2016 fiscal plan for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government, revealing that N21.676 billion has been set aside as recurrent expenditure for the State House.

In the recently assented appropriation plan, the total votes for the Presidency (State House and agencies within the supervision of the President) the sum of N44.680 billion has been allocated to it consisting of: Capital-N23.004 billion; Recurrent – N21.676 billion out of which personnel is to gulp N13.146 billion and overheads N8.529 billion.