Micah Okon
May 6, 2015 – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refuted what it termed erroneous report in the media which suggests that the Federal Government overspent the 2014 budget by N365.35 billion in the second quarter.
In a statement, Director of Corporate Communication, Mr. Ibrahim Mu’azu described the report as misleading.
According to him, ”The Financial Stability Report from which this misleading conclusion was drawn clearly states “….the fiscal operations of the Federal Government resulted in an overall deficit of N365.35 billion or 0.8 per cent of GDP, as against the proportionate budget deficit of N482.10 billion for the second half of 2014. The deficit was financed mostly from privatization proceeds”.
“This means that the Federal Government had initially projected to run a budget deficit of N482.10 billion during the second half of 2014. However, the actual outcome turned out to be much less than projected at N365.35 billion.
“The difference of over N116 billion indicates some prudence, rather than profligacy, in fiscal management”, CBN said.
It noted that deficit financing of budgets is within the Fiscal Responsibility Act and that it is a widely accepted fiscal practice.
