FISCAL DEFICIT AND UNEMPLOYMENT GROWTH IN NIGERIA

In Nigeria, budget deficit has been blamed for causing much economic crises, high inflation, poor investment performance and growth (Appah and Chigbu, 2013). One of the most important objectives of fiscal policy is to reduce national debt and to check the interest payment on such debt from rising so as to prevent high deficit in the future. However, Nigerian government budget deficit witnessed an increase in the past decades. For instance, from 1981, deficits increased from N3.9billion to N8.2billion in 1986 and it further increased to N15.1billion in 1989. From 1990, the rising trend of budget deficit continued except in 1995 when the budget witnessed or registered a surplus of N1billion. In 1998, an overall deficit jumped to N133.3billion and in 2002, it increased up to N301.4billion. Starting from 2003, government budget deficit declined from N202.7billiom to N188.2billion, N150.6billion and N101.3billion in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively. Another increase was witnessed from 2007 at N107billion to N1.5trillion in 2013 (CBN, 2014).