PwC expresses optimism on economy

Despite the harsh economic conditions, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multinational professional services network has expressed optimism over Nigeria’s economy, saying it’s going to recuperate within two years.

Speaking at the cocktail event organised for its alumni to showcase the firm’s new office in Lagos on Monday, the Chief Operating Partner, PwC Nigeria, Pedro Omontuemhen, said the firm is not surprised at the latest report released by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS).

He noted that the rate of inflation, which measures the general movement in the prices of goods and services, is on the increase, even as there is no corresponding increase in workers’ salaries. Indeed, many state governments are unable to pay their workers for many months despite Federal Government bailouts

Omontuemhen also noted that due to the devaluation of the currency, the prices or goods and services, necessarily had to rise, saying: “We also noticed recently that people are now exporting everything exportable.

“We believe that the price of basic food items would continue to increase and what the Bureau has revealed is that price of commodities is higher compared to the selling period last quarter.”   He also believed that the country and Nigerians are “going to go through some part of tough times before we begin to recover; we estimate between one and two year before we see a full recovery of the economy.”

He however explained that what is happening is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, as the same phenomenon is happening to many other economies of the world that are dependent on crude oil for survival.

“The price of crude oil has fallen down and for us as a country, the volume of crude oil we produce for a long time dropped not until recently we have continued to increase the volume. The drop in price of crude oil plus the drop in volume affected the local economies,” he expounded.

He urged government to accelerate its diversification process, as it essential at this period to reflate the economy.

“Government has always talked about diversification of economy; I think this is the time to really do it, this is the real time to roll up our sleeves and look for something else we can do besides depending on crude oil,” Omontuemhen said.