Investors' Love Affair With Nigeria Wanes as JPMorgan Cuts Bonds
- Oil-price collapse, lack of economic team curbs sentiment
- Analysts anticipate `significant' outflow of capital
Nigeria has gone almost full circle from a favored investor destination in Africa three years ago -- because of its status as the continent’s largest crude producer and most populous nation -- to being rebuffed.
Photographer: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesJPMorgan Chase & Co.’s decision to exclude Nigeria from its local-currency emerging-market bond indexes tops a year of pain for a nation reeling from a collapse in oil prices, slowing growth and a lack of economic leadership.
Nigeria has gone almost full circle from a favored investor destination in Africa three years ago -- because of its status as the continent’s largest crude producer and most populous nation -- to being rebuffed. While most of the weakening sentiment is due to the more than halving in oil prices since last year, a series of missteps by the central bank and President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in appointing an economic team are adding to the slide.