The declining oil prices for the past few months continues to paint a definitely grim picture to the citizens as it can have various socio-economic impacts including loss of job employment due to failure to award contracts to major oil servicing companies. Some major oil and gas drilling companies including Halliburton have already started laying off workers, CNN reports
According to CNN, “The price of crude oil plummeted more than 5% Monday and fell as low as $49.68 a barrel. It was the first time oil prices have been below $50 since the Great Recession in April 2009. Oil prices have plunged more than 50% over the past few months for a variety of reasons. Concerns about weak global demand, particularly in Europe, Asia and Latin America have been a big factor.”
This major oil price drop which began in 2014 and continues to slip into 2015 may have severe repercussions on the Nigerian economy as well, stalling many developments projects and also impacting job employment. Already, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projected that the external reserves will dip below $30b by the end of the second quarter of this year. CBN had also given an earlier hint that the Nigerian currency “Naira” may further devalue after the elections.
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