NGOZI AMUCHE
The Federal Government has reported a fiscal deficit of N451.22 billion in October 2020, monthly economic report by the Central Bank of Nigeria has shown.
Part of the report reads, “At N616.35 billion, gross federally collected revenue in October 2020 was below the budget benchmark by 27.2 per cent.
“It declined by 18.3 per cent and 33 per cent when compared with the level in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2019, respectively.”
This was attributed to declines in both oil and non-oil revenue components.
Federal Government retained revenue was N274.48 billion in October 2020, indicating a drop of 6.6 per cent and 52.8 per cent relative to the levels in the preceding month and corresponding period of 2019.
Driven by the rise in personnel costs and capital releases, provisional aggregate expenditure rose to N725.7 billion from N712.3 billion in the preceeding period.
Consequently, estimated fiscal deficit in October widened to N451.22 billion, from N418.5 billion in September 2020.
According to the report, the total Federal Government’s debt outstanding as of end of June 2020 was N31.01trn; with domestic and external debt components accounting for 57.6 per cent and 42.4 per cent of the total debt stock, respectively.