Osinbajo said that inflation in Nigeria was partly structural arising from infrastructural deficiencies, increased money supply and depreciation of the naira.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described inflation as tax on the poor and a disruption to long term growth.
The number two citizen spoke on Monday at the opening of the 28th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) where he represented President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The 2-day summit, with the theme, “2023 and Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity”, was organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Osinbajo said that measures must be put in place to boost confidence and increase inflows of foreign exchange, while urgent steps should be taken to control inflation.
“Going ahead, I think it is also important for us to look at other issues that might concern us and require urgent action,” he said.
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“Inflation, for example, needs to be tackled headlong, because it is both as economists will say, it is a task on the poor and it disrupts long term growth.
“While they may not have been perfect, the rules were clear and the gap between the official and parallel markets was not so wide.
“The thing is that there should be some element of price discovery in our policy regime; this will boost confidence and increase inflows of foreign exchange.
“We will also have to take urgent action to bring inflation down because it is both a tax on the poor and disrupts long term growth.’’
Osinbajo said that inflation in Nigeria was partly structural arising from infrastructural deficiencies, increased money supply, imported inflation and depreciation of the naira.
According to the Vice President, in addition to the monetary measures being taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria, there is need to increase domestic production of food and make sure that it gets to the market.
