MIRIAM NNOLI 
Paul Alaje, an economist and budget expert, has said President Bola Tinubu’s 15% inflation rate projection for 2025 is unrealistic if the policy environment remains unchanged.
Alaje also faulted some aspects of the 2025 budget proposed by the President during an interview with Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program on Monday.
New Telegraph recalls that on December 18, 2024, Tinubu presented ₦49.7tn budget estimates before a joint session of the National Assembly and expressed optimism that Nigeria’s inflation rate would decline from 34.6% to 15% in 2025.
However, Alaje said Nigeria’s headline inflation would remain around the 30% corridor in 2025 consistent with the policy environment.
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The economist said, “If I tell you what the econometric numbers are saying, based on the current policy environment, if the policy environment changes, it may improve.
“As I told you in 2024 January we will sustain 30%. If the policy environment is still sustained, we will still likely be around 30% corridor.
“So, we might not see the 15% that we wish to see because it is a mere projection. I doubt if that projection is subjected to econometrics numbers to project what the future will look like and what the impact will look like, I doubt very much.
“Some aspects of the budget are realistic but there are some aspects in the budget that I have a lot of doubts about whether they would be realistic of not.”
