The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its forecast for Nigeria's economic growth in 2024 to 3.1 percent, citing weaker growth recorded in the first quarter of the year. The new projection represents a 0.2 percentage point decrease from the previous forecast of 3.3 percent.

The downgrade follows weaker-than-expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded by Nigeria in Q1 2024. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Nigeria's GDP growth dropped quarter-on-quarter from 3.46 percent in Q4 2023 to 2.98 percent in Q1 2024.

Despite the lower forecast for Nigeria, the IMF has retained its 3.0 percent projection for the country's economic growth in 2025.

As a result of the downward revision for Nigeria, the IMF has also lowered its forecast for Sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth in 2024 to 3.7 percent from the previous 3.8 percent. However, the IMF has raised its growth outlook for the region in 2025 to 4.1 percent from 4.0 percent.

For the global economy, the IMF has maintained its growth projections of 3.2 percent in 2024 and 3.3 percent in 2025.