ABSTRACT
This chapter has two main objectives. The first is to provide stylised facts on the Nigerian economy during the 1960-97 period covered by this book. This is important for two main reasons. First, it permits an understanding of the need to extend the basic intertemporal model of the current account to reflect changes in the exchange rate and the terms of trade. Second, a crucial issue addressed in this book is the sustainability of the Nigerian current account deficits. An understanding of the structure of the Nigerian economy is relevant to the appropriateness of the macroeconomic variables chosen to achieve this. The second objective of this chapter is to discuss relevant concepts that are explored in more detail in Chapters 4, 5 and 6.
