NUMBER OF THE DAY: 0.03%

The number of the day is 0.03 per cent. That is how close Nigeria’s 2012 budget is to flouting the Fiscal Responsibility Act. With 3 per cent as the limit at which a budget deficit is regarded to have broken the law on Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, Nigeria’s Revised 2012 budget has a deficit of 2.97 per cent. It is calculated from the amount of borrowings to finance the budget against the last GDP calculated from 2011. Nigeria’s GDP is N36 trillion.