Nigeria fuel strike cost economy $1.2 bln – stats bureau

Nigeria’s economy lost an estimated N207.4 billion ($1.27 billion) due to an eight day strike in January prompted by a dispute over fuel import subsidies, the national bureau of statistics has said. The biggest losses were sustained in the retail and the oil and gas sectors, a report by the bureau stated.
Nigeria’s consumer inflation edged down slightly year-on-year in December to 10.3 per cent, from 10.5 per cent the month before, it also said. Food inflation rose 11 per cent in December, up from 9.6 per cent in November, the bureau’s data showed.
Nigerian trade unions called off strikes and protests, ending a major confrontation over fuel prices after President Goodluck Jonathan said he would cut them by one third. But a week of total shutdown was massively damaging to Nigeria’s economy, especially in its two biggest cities of Lagos and Kano, where protests were most widespread. “The sector, which accounts for about 18 per cent of GDP, was worst hit by the crisis was the Wholesale and Retail Sector, which recorded a loss of approximately 86,981.84 million naira,” the bureau report said.