The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said majority of Nigerians were getting poorer despite the country’s slow recovery from recession.

The Fund said urgent economic reforms were needed but warned that any progress expected could be threatened if the 2019 elections in the country consumes excess political energy and resources.

In its annual Article IV review of Nigeria’s economy which was released on Wednesday, the IMF said the outlook for economic growth in the country had recently improved but remained challenging despite the return to oil dependence after a rise in global oil prices and a rebound in the nation’s oil production outputs.

“Comprehensive and coherent economic policies remain urgent and must not be delayed by approaching elections and recovering oil prices,” the IMF said in the article.

It added: “Higher oil prices would support a recovery in 2018 but a ‘muddle-through’ outlook is projected for the medium term under current policies, with fiscal dominance and structural constraints leading to continuing falls in real GDP per capita.”

The report also identified some risks to the country’s economic growth, including additional delays to implementing policies and fluctuations in oil prices, a fall which the IMF said could see capital flows reversed.

While calling on the country’s apex financial institution, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to discontinue direct interventions in the nation’s economy, it repeated its call for the Federal Government to simplify its complex foreign exchange system which had left huge gaps between official rates and other avenues that certain groups can use to acquire other rates.