 Thank you for staying with us. You're still watching the breakfast on plus TV Africa. It's time for our second hot topic And this one says IMF predicts Nigeria's price levels to surge to 23 percent by 2025 Now the development comes from following the funds 2023 prediction that the country's inflation rate for 2025 was slow to 15.5 percent by 2025 now joining us to have a conversation is Muhammad is an international finance and economic analyst is joining us from League of State. Good morning, Muqtah. Thank you for joining us Hello, Muqtah Good morning. I can hear you. Okay. Okay. Fantastic. So we're seeing Well predictions to 2025 things might slow up. Please just help us make sense of all of this Well, what it means is that we hopefully would have gotten on most of our economic decisions, right? Especially the exchange rate would have been very stable though with price stability in terms of food energy cost will come down because We're doing local refining and also the refineries will be paying in Naira. So they will not be present in Naira a lot of reforms that the administration of the back up on would have been beginning to yield result especially in the area also of Investment foreign investors foreign direct investment That's what the IMF is believing that at 2025 we'll see all those things come come into fruition and then The exchange rate will have I mean the inflation and pressure would definitely good And but that also is depending on if there's no any external forces because sometime It's not about you as the economy but external forces that we're coming with our own challenges Okay, but my question is because for me I love Patterns, I love when you you know look at the trajectory of things So if you're looking at the trajectory of things in the past one year, right? Let's just let's not go too far. Let's start from 2023 to 2024 Do you think this is achievable because if we're looking at patterns they tell you something they tell you a trend So is this going to be achievable in in 2025 because we're already in 2024 almost neck deep into into this And we're seeing inflation rising every single month So how possible is this for us to get up to this figure that the IMF is predicting in 2025? When you look at 2023 was there was no an economy. There was no economy. What we're doing was copy and paste We're just busy Buhari administration had no idea we keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing and so there was no any economy strategies So when you look at this current administration, it seems to have a little bit of strategy Even if it says coming late, even if you say it was horribly put into it even if you say that It's shaky at the beginning, but definitely I think they seem to know what they want to achieve economically compared to the Buhari administration of eight years that seems to give Nigeria tip-tip into debt now IMF also is looking at some most of our debt also would have been paid off Looking at the widening the tax bracket also so we have more inflow from Nigeria in the diaspora So a lot of things they are made by looking based on this current policy That was not in the previous administration the previous administration was all about infrastructure poor-interviewed infrastructure even when this infrastructure in itself cannot be generated They need a revenue to pay off his debt. So and we had debt challenges. We still have it in this current administration Exactly, I was just about to point that out as well because we're still borrowing even as of right now Yeah, they have a strategy If you listen to the CBN governor was just telling us just yesterday that What the fear that we have that a scenario that was due to the Treasure of putting effects into the hands of people the change was driven by debt resettlement Debt payment and which is good for the integrity and for the rating of your country So definitely they have a plan they are expecting more inflow Won the Naira stable and you will see a lot of inflows will come in and so that also we will be bringing down the cost of exchange rate because Nigeria Inflation our project is driven by high exchange rates and also energy costs now That's energy cause if you look at diesel which is mostly used to our most of our industry The price seems to be going down since dango theory finality producing diesel So we might begin to see a situation whereby and that also have a Long-term effect on the price of goods and I will bring it down also Then a change rate with express stability to be achieved anytime soon And I'm going forward if they continue with a strategy attracting more inflow We might continue to see that exchange rate goes down and then on to study at it at the true value of this The up of the Naira so all things being equal why MF is optimistic about it It's because if the shortest possible time you could see what I have told people was the Guinness book of economic recovery Where we're back we see our currency Two months it was them the worst performing currency the world and two months later the best performing currency in the world Magic Our time is up actually but I'm MF has said 23% by 2025. What is your own outlook for 2025? What is your own prediction for 2025 given all the parameters all the indicate indicators that we've seen in As short as possible. Can you please tell I'm not like I'm I'm looking quarter by quarter So I'm watching it. I'm seeing it. I've seen it goes to 33. I know that by the second half of this year Second quarter of this year will see a slowdown. I know we end this year strong But I can't really put a figure to eat now But hopefully I think towards the end of this year. We might be ending in something between 25 to 28 so and if you look at that about what I am if he's saying in 2025 It could be achievable. Yeah, because if you are saying 25 to 28, then maybe 23% might just might just happen It's alright. All right. I want to say thank you for coming It was lovely having a conversation with you and making sense of you know What our inflation rate is and what I am if he's saying and hopefully This would reflect in 2025 where we've been hoping hoping that even as of right now We might just see a better economy and thankfully the government is doing something about it and Well, it might not be far-fetched this light at the end of the tunnel. I want to say thank you for coming It was lovely having a conversation with you Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We've been speaking with Mokhtar Mohammed It's an international finance and economic analyst. It was joining us from Lagos state And we're just talking about the fact that I am a predicts 23% for inflation rates in 2025 that is it for the show today was lovely having the breakfast with you will see again Tomorrow. Yes Well, we sincerely apologize again for the little confusion at the beginning of the show, but we still got it done and We thank God for small messes until we meet again tomorrow. My name is Nyamgun Agadje My name is Ruma Paulson. Have an amazing day