Economy - overview:
Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management, is undertaking some reforms under the new civilian administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid population growth - Nigeria is Africa's most populous country - and the country, once a large net exporter of food, now must import food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August 2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club and a $1 billion credit from the IMF, both contingent on economic reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after failing to meet spending and exchange rate targets, making it ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. In the last year the government has begun showing the political will to implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the distribution of earnings from the oil industry. During 2003 the government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a domestically designed and run program modeled on the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility for fiscal and monetary management. GDP rose strongly in 2004.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $125.7 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
6.2% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1,000 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 36.3%
industry: 30.5%
services: 33.3% (2004 est.)
Labor force:
55.67 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 70%, industry 10%, services 20% (1999 est.)
Unemployment rate:
NA
Population below poverty line:
60% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.6%
highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
50.6 (1996-97)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
16.5% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
18% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $11.78 billion
expenditures: $11.47 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Public debt:
20% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products:
cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber; fish
Industries:
crude oil, coal, tin, columbite, palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel, small commercial ship construction and repair
Industrial production growth rate:
1.8% (2004 est.)
Electricity - production:
19.85 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - consumption:
18.43 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - exports:
30 million kWh (2002)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)
Oil - production:
2.356 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - consumption:
275,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA
Oil - imports:
NA
Oil - proved reserves:
34 billion bbl (2004 est.)
Natural gas - production:
15.68 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
7.85 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
7.83 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
4.007 trillion cu m (2004)
Current account balance:
$5.228 billion (2004 est.)
Exports:
$33.99 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities:
petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber
Exports - partners:
US 48.2%, India 8.1%, Spain 7.4%, Brazil 5.5%, Japan 4.1% (2004)
Imports:
$17.14 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals
Imports - partners:
US 9.1%, China 8.8%, UK 8.7%, Netherlands 6.3%, France 6.1%, Germany 5.7%, Italy 4.7% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$14.71 billion (2004 est.)
Debt - external:
$30.55 billion (2004 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
IMF $250 million (1998)
Currency (code):
naira (NGN)
Exchange rates:
nairas per US dollar - 132.89 (2004), 129.22 (2003), 120.58 (2002), 111.23 (2001), 101.7 (2000)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
