ABSTRACT

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic is entering the second wave as most nations of the world began the gradual relaxation of the lockdown measures earlier imposed. This has however, increased the number of confirmed cases of the pandemic as well as fatality rates due to increased community transmissions. The proclivity of the Covid-19 pandemic to generate shocks, which cause economic fluctuations, calls for an understanding of the behaviour of macroeconomic variables; as we await to defeat the virus with the development of vaccines and the embrace of the new normal in the social arena. It is on this factual evidence, the study examined the implications of COVID 19 pandemic on macroeconomic fundamentals in Nigeria. Objectively, the study regressed for examining the macroeconomic implications of COVID 19 Pandemic in Nigeria, evaluating the implications of monthly COVID 19 Death Cases on exchange rate in Nigeria. The study found out that, COVID 19 pandemic exerted a significant negative impact on macroeconomic performance in the area during this period. It is noteworthy that, the pandemic increased poverty trend and increased socioeconomic hardship in the country and the study and that the virus had a negative effect on job creation in the area during this study, as government regulatory policies towards lockdown crackdown on industrial performance, thereby leading to job loss. It was duly recommended based on the findings that, to boast exchange rate stability, the government must encourage greater private sector participation through tax concessions, credit to the private sector and provision of basic infrastructures capable of facilitating economic growth in the country, thereby resulting to the diversification of the Nigerian Agrarian economy and increase the countries naira value against the dominant dollar and that the government through the central bank of Nigeria and federal ministry of finance in the country should implement price management mechanism and not allow producers and distributors changes prices indiscriminately without real extra input cost incurred. This would help keep the currency in check and promote price stability in the country.