LAGOS: Nigeria expects economic growth this year to be 5.54 percent, down from an estimated 6.23 percent for 2014, after the government trimmed its expenditure following a slump in the price of oil, the statistics office said on Thursday.

Inflation in Africa's biggest economy is expected to rise this year to 8.78 percent, up from an estimated 8.0 percent last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said in its outlook for 2015, driven by the central bank's devaluation of the naira , which has been hit by the drop in the price of oil, Nigeria's main export.

Copyright Reuters, 2015