Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has shown that the Nigerian economy has officially come out of recession.
According to the data, the nation’s economy recorded a marginal 0.55 per cent growth in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017 after recording negative growth for five consecutive quarters, following multiple shocks, due to the crash in the price of crude oil, the country’s main foreign exchange earner.
The report says the Q2 2017 growth rate of 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) was 2.04 per cent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 (-1.49%) and higher by 1.46 per cent points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter, which was revised to – 0.91% from – 0.52% due to revisions to crude output for March 2017.
The report shows that the economic recovery of the country resulted from the performance of four main economic activities comprising oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade.
In the report, Oil GDP recovered significantly from -11.63 per cent in Q2 2016 and -15.40 per cent in Q1 2017 to 1.64 per cent in Q2 2017.
Oil GDP expanded considerably in the second quarter of 2017, while Non-oil GDP only grew at 0.45 per cent, down from 0.72 per cent in the preceding quarter and -0.38 in the corresponding period in 2016.
The growth in agriculture has continued to be great.
The report said the growth in agriculture has been consistent even throughout the recession period.
It has grown by 3.01 per cent in Q2 2017, from 3.39 per cent in Q1 2017 and 4.53 per cent in Q2 2016.
There is also growth in the manufacturing sector.
Trade, which has a dominant share of GDP however declined at -1.62 per cent, but the contraction in the sector decelerated from the -3.08 per cent recorded in Q1 2017 while electricity and gas recorded strong growth by 35.5 per cent, compared to -5.04 per cent in Q1 2017 and -10.46 per cent in Q2 2016.
Financial institutions also improved, growing by 11.78 per cent in Q2 2017, compared to 0.60 per cent in Q1 2017 and -13.24 per cent in Q2 2016 while the industry sector grew positively by 1.45 per cent in Q2 2017, after nine consecutive quarters of negative growth since Q4 2014.
