Breaking: Nigeria’s economy defeats recession as GDP grows by 0.11%

According to the latest report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.11%(year-on-year) in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing the first positive quarterly growth in the last three quarters.

The report released by the NBS on Thursday, February 18, showed that Nigeria’s economy is believed to have begun to find a way of escape from the recent recession.

Though weak, the Bureau of Statistics explained that the positive growth reflects the gradual return of economic activities following the easing of restricted movements and limited local and international commercial activities in the preceding quarters.

According to the report, as a result, while the Q4 2020 growth rate was lower than growth rate recorded the previous year by –2.44% points, it was higher by 3.74% points compared to Q3 2020.

On a quarter on quarter basis, the NBS noted that the real GDP growth was 9.68% indicating a second positive consecutive quarter on quarter real growth rate in 2020 after two negative quarters.

Overall, in 2020, the annual growth of real GDP was estimated at –1.92%, a decline of –4.20% points when compared to the 2.27% recorded in 2019.

In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N43,564,006.29 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 which recorded a GDP aggregate of N39,577,340.04 million, representing a year on year nominal growth rate of 10.07%.

This growth rate was lower relative to growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019 by –2.26% points but higher than the preceding quarter by 6.68% points with growth rates recorded at 12.34% and 3.39% respectively.

For better clarity, Bureau of Statistics stated that the Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors.

Below are some major highlights:

• The oil sector plunged by 19.76% (year-on-year) in real terms as against a contraction of 13.89% recorded in Q3 2020.
• The non-oil sector on the other hand grew by 1.69% in real terms, an improvement compared to the contraction of 2.51% recorded in Q3 2020. It however was slower than 2.26% recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.
• The service sector contributed 54.28% to the GDP in Q4 2020, followed by agriculture, which contributed 26.95%, and industries with 18.77%.
• Non-oil accounted for 94.13% while the oil sector accounted for 5.87% of the total GDP for Q4 2020.