ABUJA: The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele met with the organised private sector to discuss developments in the foreign exchange market. He gave insights into the continued pressure on the Naira, blaming it on speculative activities of operators. He urged the Nigerian business community to focus on local production, promising that the CBN will assist local manufacturers of products that are now being imported into the country.
No cause for fear, panic I would like to say, just to underscore a point, that people are nervous, people are worried, let me assure you and say that there is no need to be nervous, there is no need to panic. No doubt there is a need for concern, and we will certainly find a solution to the current crisis caused by falling oil prices. It is a journey that all of us are already in. I say with commitment, we will pass through it. That is why I am trying to say that there is no need for anybody to be nervous.
The important thing is that the global economy has shown in some economies, some recovery. The recovery is seen to be weak, particularly in the United States, where we see unemployment dropping to as low as 5.8 per cent. We have seen inflations at some low levels and we have seen the growth in the GDP in the US come up to as high as 3.8 per cent in 2014.
Another macro economic development in the world had to do with falling commodity prices, I mean we are only seeing crude oil prices and I give you an example. The price of gold fell from a peak of about $1,380 per Pound in March 2014 to as low as $1,140 per pound in November 2014.
Similarly, the price of copper fell by nearly 11 per cent in the cause of the year. So what I am saying here is that what is happening in the global economy is not just about the drop in crude oil prices, we have seen drop in prices of all commodities, we have also seen in the world, rising geo-political tension and conflicts, the battle in Ukraine and of course the EU and the US taking on Russia, about the annexation of East Ukraine, and we also had geo-political tensions in the Middle Eastern.
