Nigeria, July 4 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the gulf between this year's budgetary spending and revenue of Africa's biggest oil producer to widen further in the face of geopolitical threats to the prices of crude, which contributes around two-thirds of government income.

Oil has been hit by a mix of shocks since January, including Donald Trump's tariff war with the rest of the world, forcing Brent Crude, the leading global price benchmark, to shed 21.6 per cent so far.

Brent was quoted at $68.5 per barrel as of 06:02 WAT on Thursday, 8.7 per cent behind Nigeria's projected average of $75 for 2025. And the multilateral institution is calling for a rethink of the government's fiscal stance to address the gap and take ...