Nigeria recorded fiscal deficit of N2.293 trillion or 6.43 per cent in the first quarter of 2021
This was disclosed by the Budget Office of the Federation, BoF, in its Budget Implementation Report for the first quarter of 2021.
The report stated that “revenue and expenditure outturn of the federal government resulted in a fiscal deficit of N2.293 trillion during the quarter”.
The first quarter deficit the report said “was N1.070 trillion (87.51 percent) higher than the projected quarterly fiscal deficit of N1.222 trillion”.
“The 2021 fiscal deficit was also higher than the N1.377 trillion deficit recorded in first quarter of 2020” the Budget Office said. According to the BoF, “the deficit was partly-financed through domestic borrowing of N550.0 billion”.
In the first quarter of 2021 also, the federal government said it spent N813 billion to service debt. BoF in its report stated that “total debt service in the first quarter of 2021 stood at N813.10 billion, indicating an increase of N32.01 billion (4.10 percent) above the N781.10 billion projected for the quarter”.
The sum of N581.27 billion was used for domestic debt servicing while N231.83 billion was used for external debt service in the first quarter of 2021. “The amount used for domestic debt servicing was N35.40 billion (6.48 percent) above the projection”
According to the report, the BIR showed that average oil production and lifting (including Condensates) in the first quarter of 2021 was 1.72mbpd and 1.51mbpd respectively.
It said, “Oil production was 0.14mbpd (7.53 percent) below the 1.86mbpd benchmark for the 2021 Budget. The volume of oil production in the period was also 0.12mbpd (7.69 percent) above the 1.56m bpd reported in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 0.38mbpd (18.45 percent) below the 2.06mbpd recorded in the first quarter of 2020.”
Nigeria’s total merchandise trade in the first quarter of 2021 stood at N9.757 trillion, representing 6.99 percent and 14.13 percent increase when compared to the values recorded in fourth and first quarters of 2020 respectively.
The export component of this trade stood at N2.907 trillion, representing 29.79 percent of the total trade, while import was valued at N6.850 trillion, representing 70.21 percent. The higher level of imports over exports resulted in a trade deficit (in goods) of N3.943 trillion.
The report also explained that the value of crude oil export stood at N1.929 trillion (66.38 percent) of the total export while non–crude oil export accounted for 33.62 percent of the total export recorded in the review period.