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Abuja - Nigeria's budget deficit is now 1% of GDP following a rebasing of its gross domestic product, from 1.9% before, finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement, after President Goodluck Jonathan signed the budget for 2014 into law.
Jonathan signed the 4.64 trillion naira ($28.58bn) budget - or 4.963trn niara including a rebate from a 2012 cut in fuel subsidies - late on Friday.
The budget passed in April, despite earlier threats by the main opposition coalition to block it in the lower house.
Nigeria recalculated its GDP last month, which pushed it ahead of South Africa to become Africa's top economy.
The new figure shrank Nigeria's debt-to-GDP ratio to 11% for 2013, against 19% in 2012.
Its economy is attracting growing interest from foreign investors, although they worry about the government's tendency to squander its oil cash as well as mounting security challenges like a deadly Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands in the northeast and which hit the capital Abuja twice last month.
Most governments overhaul GDP calculations every few years to reflect changes in output, but Nigeria had not done so since 1990, so sectors such as e-commerce, mobile phones and its prolific "Nollywood" film industry had to be factored in.
The budget assumes a $77.50 a barrel and production of 2.388 million barrels a day. The price assumption is seen as conservative, whereas the output assumption is seen as over optimistic, economists say.
Jonathan signed the 4.64 trillion naira ($28.58bn) budget - or 4.963trn niara including a rebate from a 2012 cut in fuel subsidies - late on Friday.
The budget passed in April, despite earlier threats by the main opposition coalition to block it in the lower house.
Nigeria recalculated its GDP last month, which pushed it ahead of South Africa to become Africa's top economy.
The new figure shrank Nigeria's debt-to-GDP ratio to 11% for 2013, against 19% in 2012.
Its economy is attracting growing interest from foreign investors, although they worry about the government's tendency to squander its oil cash as well as mounting security challenges like a deadly Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands in the northeast and which hit the capital Abuja twice last month.
Most governments overhaul GDP calculations every few years to reflect changes in output, but Nigeria had not done so since 1990, so sectors such as e-commerce, mobile phones and its prolific "Nollywood" film industry had to be factored in.
The budget assumes a $77.50 a barrel and production of 2.388 million barrels a day. The price assumption is seen as conservative, whereas the output assumption is seen as over optimistic, economists say.
