The International Monetary Fund has raised Nigeria’s growth forecast for 2021 to 2.5 per cent from 1.5 per cent earlier announced in January.

The International Monetary Fund has raised Nigeria’s growth forecast for 2021 to 2.5 per cent from 1.5 per cent earlier announced in January.

It disclosed this in its World Economic Outlook for April with the theme ‘Managing divergent recoveries’, which was released on Tuesday.

The report also projected a 16 per cent consumer price for the country in 2021.

While projecting an improved global growth, the IMF noted that it was one year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.

However, it added, the outlook presented daunting challenges related to divergences in the speed of recovery both across and within countries and the potential for persistent economic damage from the crisis.

The Nigerian stock market resumed after the Easter public holidays on Tuesday with a loss of 0.39 per cent due to persistent bearish trend.

Specifically, the All-Share Index lost 150.13 points or 0.39 per cent to close 38,766.61 compared with 38,916.74 achieved on Thursday.

Also, the market capitalization lost N78bn to close at N20.28tn from N20.361tn achieved before the break on Thursday.

The market loss was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalized stocks, amongst which are Guinness Nigeria, MRS Oil Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, BUA Cement and Aluminium Extrusion Industries.

Market sentiment turned negative with 21 laggards, relative to 14 gainers