FG records N3.05trn deficit in eight months

A new report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the Federal Government recorded a fiscal deficit of N3.05trillion in its operations between January and August this year.

The CBN revealed this in its economic report for August this year, showing that the government had not been able to generate adequate revenue to meet its expenditure.

According to report, federal government’s retained revenue was put at N343.4billion in January while its expenditure was N868.3billion.This resulted in a deficit of N524.9billion.

For February, March and April, the federal government’s retained revenue was put at N318.1billion, N392.2billion and N386.2billion respectively while expenditure was put at N1.09trillion, N532.3billion and N1trillion, respectively. This resulted in fiscal deficits of N780.1billion, N140.1billion and N618.9billion, respectively.

In the months of May, June and July, the federal government recorded revenue of N279.7billion, N310.6billion and N381.8billion while expenditure was put at N499.5billion, N814.5bllion and N490.9billion, respectively, with N219.8billion, N503.9billion and N109.1billion deficits respectively.

In the month of August, the government’s revenue was estimated at N308.1billio while the total expenditure incurred during the period was N464.3billion. This resulted in a deficit of N156.2billion during the period.

“At N464.31billion, the estimated total expenditure of the federal government was below the monthly budget estimate of N865.31billion by 46.3 percent. It was also below the N490.87billion recorded in the preceding month by 5.4 percent.

“A breakdown showed that recurrent and capital expenditure constituted 75.5 percent and 18.6 per cent of the total expenditure, respectively, while transfers constituted 5.9 percent in the review period.

“Of the recurrent expenditure, non-debt obligation was 69.3 percent, while debt service payments accounted for 30.7 percent of the total.

“Consequently, the fiscal operations of the federal government resulted in a deficit of N156.18billion, compared with the monthly budget deficit of N159.87billion,” the CBN report said.