Africa: Oil Prices and African Economies

Jan 7, 2015 | Abayomi Azikiwe, Global Research
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During 2014 many western-based financial publications declared that the Federal Republic of Nigeria had surpassed the Republic of South Africa as the largest economy on the continent.

Nigeria relies heavily on oil exports for the generation of its foreign exchange earnings.

Recently the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala delivered a major policy address indicating that the rapid decline in oil prices would necessitate the imposition of measures by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan designed to trim costs and spending. In a later interview with a leading Nigerian newspaper, the finance minister admitted that as a result of the price declines, the government was forced to cut its capital expenditures by 59 percent.