By Nse Anthony-Uko
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) – Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.95 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2018, from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
According to the Q1 2018 GDP Report released on the NBS Monday morning, this shows a stronger growth when compared with the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a growth of –0.91 per cent indicating an increase of 2.87 per cent points.
Compared to the preceding quarter, there was a decline of –0.16 per cent points from 2.11 per cent Quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was –13.40 per cent
The NBS also said that production estimates for the third and fourth quarters of 2017 have been revised and oil GDP for those quarters have been adjusted accordingly.
Still on the first quarter of 2018, aggregate GDP stood at N28.46 trillion in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a nominal GDP aggregate of N26.02 trillion thus, presenting a positive year on year nominal growth rate of 9.36 per cent.
This rate of growth is however lower relative to growth recorded in Q1 2017 by –7.70 per cent points at 17.06% but higher than the preceding quarter by 2.14 percentage points at 7.22 per cent. To give a clearer depiction, the Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors.
The Oil Sector
In the period under review, the nation recorded an average daily oil production of 2.0 million barrels per day (mbpd), higher than the daily average production recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 0.05 mbpd and 0.25 mbpd higher than 2017 first quarter production which recorded an output of 1.75mbpd.
Real growth of the oil sector was 14.77 per cent (year-on-year) in Q1 2018. This represents an increase of 30.37 per cent points relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2017.
Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector grew by 13.24 per cent in Q1 2018. The Oil sector contributed 9.61% to total real GDP in Q1 2018, up from 8.53 per cent and 7.35 per cent recorded in the Q1 2017 and Q4 2017, respectively.
The Non-Oil Sector
The non-oil sector grew by 0.76% in real terms during the reference quarter. This is higher by 0.04% point compared to the rate recorded same quarter of 2017 and 0.70% point lower than the fourth quarter of 2017. This sector was driven mainly by Agriculture (Crop production); other drivers were Financial institutions and insurance, Manufacturing, Transportation and Storage and Information and Communication. In real terms, the Non-Oil sector contributed 90.39% to the nation’s GDP, lower than 91.47% recorded in the first quarter of 2017 and 92.65% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.