Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, July 01, 2004.
Recurrent
expenditure takes 80.3 per cent of 2003 budget
By Sanya Adejokun,
Senior
Correspondent, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said
total Federal Government recurrent expenditure last year stood at N984.3
billion or 80.3 per cent while N241.7 billion or 19.7 per cent was spent on
development projects.
It also said the government ran a deficit of
N202.7 billion that is an estimated 2.8 per cent of GDP. It, however, stated
that the entire deficit was financed from the domestic banking and non-banking
sectors as opposed to past situations where deficits were financed though Ways
and Means.
The bank, in its 2003 annual report and
statement of accounts released in Abuja on Wednesday said aggregate expenditure
of government was N1,226 billion representing a 20.4 per cent increase over the
expenditure in the preceding year and surpassed the budgeted total expenditure
by 3.1 per cent.
“The increased expenditure level
reflected higher domestic debt service payments that exceeded the budget
target, as well as non-debt expenditure,” the report stated.
It said the overall balance of payments
deficit narrowed to N162.84 billion or 2.2 per cent of GDP from N563.01 (10.3
per cent of GDP) in 2002.
This was occasioned by favourable
developments in the international oil market as the average price of crude oil
rose to $25.04 per barrel in 2002 to $29.61 per barrel in 2003.
The apex bank lamented however that, “as a result of
demand pressure caused by expansionary fiscal operations and market exuberance,
there was a drawdown in external reserves. Consequently, the level of external
reserves fell by 2.8% from $7.68 to $7.47 billion”.
